China and Vietnam, two traditional friends, are going to see new developments in all-round cooperation in 2010, said Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Sun Guoxiang in an recent interview with Xinhua.

China and Vietnam are to embrace the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations on Jan. 18. The two countries have decided to hold various kinds of activities throughout the year to celebrate the six-decade diplomatic ties.

Early in the middle of last century, China and Vietnam forged the close bond like "comrades and brothers", said Sun.

The two sides have seen continuous development of traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation over the past years under the care and guidance of leaders of the two countries, Sun said.

In 2008, China and Vietnam decided to establish comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, he said.

Last year, despite the global financial crisis, bilateral trade went up to exceed 20 billion U.S. dollars, said Sun. China has become Vietnam's largest trading partner for six consecutive years.

Investment of Chinese companies to Vietnam has totaled nearly three billion U.S. dollars so far, said Sun. Economic and trade cooperation between China and Vietnam is becoming deeper and wider.

Sun said the year of 2010 is decided by leaders of the two countries to be China-Vietnam's Year of Friendship. The two sides will hold activities in economic and trade, education, culture, tourism and other fields to strengthen ties and cooperation.

These activities are expected to further enhance mutual understanding and political trust to enrich and bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, said Sun.

The activities will also be good opportunities to educate young peoples of the two countries about traditional friendship, laying a good foundation for the future development of bilateral relations.

In the beginning of this year, Vietnam assumed the chairmanship of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Sun said China will provide support to Vietnam as the new chairman and he believed cooperation between China and ASEAN will be further enhanced during this year.

China and ASEAN established Free Trade Area in the beginning of this year, with expected new developments in the fields like finance, infrastructure, agriculture and rural areas.