China and Vietnam settle border dispute

Vietnam and China have completed the demarcation of their long-disputed land border in what they hailed as an event of"great historic significance" 30 years after their brief but bloody border war, state media reported Thursday.

The two countries signed a land border agreement in 1999, but it took them nine years to demarcate the 1,350-kilometer, or 840-mile, frontier.

The Vietnam News Agency reported that the two countries issued a joint statement, at the conclusion of four days of meetings, in which the border demarcation was announced as"an event of great historic significance in Vietnam-China relations."