Senior Chinese leader says has 'shared destiny' with Vietnam

China and Vietnam's Communist parties have a "shared destiny" and the two nations have huge potential for economic cooperation, a senior official said on Tuesday during a visit to Vietnam.

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's elite Standing Committee which runs the country, told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi that the two parties "constitute a community of shared destiny with strategic significance", the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"The sound and stable development of the bilateral ties will help to solidify the ruling position of the two parties, which is in the interests of the two parties and people of the two nations," Xinhua cited Liu as saying.

The two economies are highly complementary, with huge potential for practical cooperation, he added.

While the report made no direction mention of the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, it quoted Liu as suggesting the two countries "properly manage and control their divergences, so as to create favorable environment for bilateral cooperation".

China claims almost 90 percent of the potentially energy rich ocean despite competing claims from Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Taiwan. The waters are thought to hold vast untapped reserves of oil and natural gas that could potentially place those who control them in league with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Qatar.