Improved diplomatic ties appear to be on the way between Vietnam and China after a meeting between two top officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) on Thursday.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of the CPC, met with Le Hong Anh, standing secretary of the Secretariat of the CPV, in Hanoi. The two officials agreed to "enhance mutual trust, build consensus and boost progress of China-Vietnam relations in a correct path," reports Xinhua.net.

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Yu said the improved communications is from a strategic view and long-term perspective. He said his three-day visit was commissioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The two nations are engaged in a dispute over the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. In May, a US$1-billion deepwater rig of the CNOOC oil company, a state-run firm, parked 240 kilometers off the Vietnamese coast.

The incident sparked anti-Chinese violence in Vietnam and is felt even in Vietnamese communities overseas.

To mend the broken relationship, China sent envoys to Hanoi, but their relationship again turned for the worse after Vietnam submitted in December its position paper on the maritime dispute caused by China claiming 90 percent of the South China Sea based on a nine-dash line.

The meeting of the two officials is expected to seek a solution to the territorial dispute, although it doesn't address the problem completely because other nations have also laid a claim on these islands.

Lin said his previous China visit resulted in positive progress. He added that both nations have the responsibility to "inherit and carry forward their traditional friendship fostered by the older generations of their leaders" specifically, Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Mao Zedong.

Despite the territorial dispute, two-way trade exists between Hanoi and Beijing, which have reached US$50 billion yearly.

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