Drawn together by their communist isolation and a peace agreement in Cambodia, the leaders of China and Vietnam announced Tuesday that relations have been normalized after 13 years of hostility.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after a Cambodian peace agreement was signed in Paris. China had made a Cambodian settlement the main condition for normalizing ties with Vietnam.China and Vietnam never broke diplomatic relations and maintained their embassies in each other's capitals. But for years their exchanges were otherwise limited to hostile rhetoric and cross-border sniper fire.
Small-scale trade resumed in 1988, and normalization means rail, phone and other links will be restored. The two countries are expected to sign economic, transport and telecommunications agree-ments.
The Xinhua News Agency issued the announcement as Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng held closed-door talks in the Great Hall of the People with their Vietnamese counterparts, Do Muoi and Vo Van Kiet.
"It is of great significance for the leaders of China and Vietnam to meet here after a long, difficult period," Jiang told his guests.
"This meeting wraps up the past and opens the way to the future. It marks the normalization of our relations," Jiang said.
Do Muoi and Kiet arrived in Beijing Tuesday afternoon in a drizzle after a stop in the southern Chinese city of Nanning.
They were welcomed with a 21-gun salute outside the Great Hall, on the edge of Tiananmen Square. As Do Muoi and Jiang reviewed an honor guard, Li and Kiet looked on and shivered.
The evening television news showed the four men grinning broadly at each other across a conference table.
The Vietnamese will visit the economic reform showcases of Canton and Shenzhen, in southern China, before concluding their visit Saturday.