Xi will visit Vietnam from April 14 to 15, and Malaysia and Cambodia from April 15 to 18, state-run Xinhua news agency said on Friday, after the Chinese president pledged this week to deepen “all-round cooperation” with China’s neighbours.
That leaves China an outlier in two-way talks as tensions run high with Washington.
The rare trips are a high-profile personal diplomatic effort by Xi, who last visited Cambodia and Malaysia nine and 12 years ago respectively, though his last visit to Vietnam was more recent, in December 2023.
China and Vietnam are expected to sign about 40 agreements on Monday, two Vietnamese officials said, including some on rail links. Both sources sought anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
Vietnam has approached China for funding and technology to develop its railway network, with previous high-level visits by their officials often including deals on railway cooperation.
One of the sources said defence and police ministries would also sign pacts, but it was unclear if these would be binding and include financial commitments. Most agreements signed on past state visits have not been binding.
Xinhua said it would issue articles on Xi’s visit to Southeast Asia, on topics such as how “flowing water cannot be severed” between China and Malaysia, and also featuring Xi and his “ironclad friends” from Cambodia.
In the days before and after Trump’s reciprocal tariffs took effect on April 9, most of them since paused except for China, Beijing had already started to persuade global regional blocs to stick to a common line against the punitive U.S. levies.
