Mr Triet made the proposal at a meeting with Bai En Pei, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Council of Yunnan province in Kunming on May 15.

He said Yunnan and the four Vietnamese provinces should make greater efforts to complete the land border demarcation and marker planting before 2008 in order to build the common borderline of peace, friendship and cooperation.

He also asked Yunnan to create favourable conditions for countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region to implement cooperation programmes on exploiting and using water sources of the Mekong River in a sustainable manner.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Bai said he expected President Triet’s first visit to Yunnan to be a watershed moment that will lead to a new era of cooperation between Yunnan and Vietnam. Yunnan is hoping to expand cooperation with Vietnam in the areas of trade, investment, education, culture, science and technology, health care, agriculture and tourism.

Vietnam and Yunnan have seen their relationship grow markedly over the last decade, with two-way trade hitting the US$500 million mark in 2006.