Vietnamese PM meets with senior Chinese officials

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong, and Minister of National Defense Dong Jun in Hanoi on Monday.

The three senior Chinese officials were in Vietnam to attend the first ministerial meeting of the China-Vietnam "3+3" strategic dialogue on diplomacy, defense and public security.

Noting that China is the only country that aligns with all of Vietnam's foreign policy priorities, Chinh said that consolidating and developing relations with China is the top priority and a strategic choice of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government.

Chinh said that Vietnam firmly adheres to the one-China policy, supports the series of global initiatives proposed by China, and is willing to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties, prepare for the next stage of high-level exchanges, jointly enhance political mutual trust, promote pragmatic cooperation, properly handle differences, and continuously deepen the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

For his part, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is willing to work with Vietnam to comprehensively deepen the alignment of development strategies, strengthen cooperation in areas such as connectivity, trade and investment, implement more projects that benefit people's livelihoods, and deliver greater benefits to the people of both countries, so as to jointly forge ahead in a turbulent and changing world.

Vietnamese PM meets with senior Chinese officials

Member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) could release additional oil stocks into the market "as and if needed", despite the current coordinated release of reserves already agreed upon, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Monday.

In a video statement, Birol said that government and industry stocks held under government obligation would still amount to more than 1.4 billion barrels after the current release.

He said that the ongoing release, once completed, will reduce member countries' reserves by only about 20 percent.

The 32 member countries on March 11 unanimously agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market in response to disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict.

"The volume of oil supply now offline is already higher than the supply loss during the oil shock of 1973, and higher than any of the major disruptions we have witnessed since then," Birol said, stressing that restoring normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains critical to stabilizing oil markets.

IEA members could release more oil stocks into market "as and if needed": IEA chief