This is the first visit to Vietnam by a Chinese leader in six years

Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun a two-day visit to Vietnam to strengthen ties between the communist countries three months after U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Hanoi.

Reuters reports.

Making his first visit to Vietnam in six years, Xi was met at Hanoi airport by Prime Minister Pham Minh Quynh, and people waved flags of both countries on the way to the hotel, according to photos in state media.

Despite very close ties on the economic front, the neighbors disagree over borders in the South China Sea and have a thousand-year history of conflict.

"The future of Asia is not in the hands of anyone but Asians," Xi said in an op-ed in the Communist Party of Vietnam's newspaper on the eve of his visit.

He added that a "community with a shared future" between the two countries would be of strategic importance, according to English and Vietnamese translations of his article.

At the same time, he warned against the rise of "hegemony" in the world, apparently referring to the United States, although he did not name it.

Xi's visit was also delayed due to protracted negotiations over the use of the phrase "common destiny," a stronger, Chinese interpretation of the phrase that Beijing prefers to describe the ties between the two sides, officials and diplomats say.

The visit had been planned for months, and for a short time it was even thought to be scheduled before Biden's trip, officials said.

However, according to Le Hong Hiep, a specialist in Vietnam's strategic and political affairs at Singapore's Iseas Yusof Ishak Institute, the strengthening of relations will be only symbolic.

"Vietnam's distrust of China is deep, and from the perspective of the Vietnamese people, there is little 'common destiny' between the two countries as long as China continues to claim most of the South China Sea," he said.