Vietnam's top leader to visit China from Sunday

BEIJING (Reuters) -- Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, will make an official visit to China from Sunday until Aug. 20, Vietnamese government and Chinese state media said, cementing close ties between the Communist-run neighbors.

On his first foreign trip since his appointment this month as general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Lam is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials.

Despite their economic and trade links, the two nations occasionally clash over boundaries in the energy-rich South China Sea, a key waterway claimed by Beijing almost in its entirety, despite overlapping claims by several nations.

Lam's visit follows an invitation from Xi and his wife, Vietnam's government said in a statement on Thursday that confirmed an earlier Reuters report on the visit.

China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, with two-way trade in the first seven months of this year rising 25% from a year earlier to $112 billion, Vietnamese customs data shows.