Vietnam’s Communist Party chief has phone conversation with US president

During the phone call with President Biden from the Party Central Committee’s headquarters in Hanoi on Wednesday evening, General Secretary Trong suggested the two countries put economic, scientific and technological cooperation as the focus and driving force for the relationship.

He also hopes that the two countries will continue to implement defense-security cooperation agreements, attach importance to promoting trade and new fields such as logistics, digital economy, green economy transformation, and healthcare, according to a statement released by the Communist Party’s Central Committee for Foreign Affairs.

The Vietnamese leader said that the two sides should step up cooperation in overcoming war consequences, U.N. peacekeeping activities, information exchange, as well as crime prevention.

Trong suggested the U.S. continue to create favorable conditions to increase the number of Vietnamese students in the country, and welcomed the building of Fulbright University Vietnam into a high-quality training center in the region.

He affirmed that responding to climate change is one of the major undertakings in Vietnam’s development policy, and suggested that the U.S. continue to support Vietnam’s efforts.

Vietnam welcomes the U.S. to support ASEAN’s central role, and join ASEAN countries in promoting the ASEAN Vision for the Indo-Pacific, said Trong.

President Biden said that Vietnam is an important partner of the U.S. and that the U.S. supports an “independent, self-reliant and prosperous” Vietnam.

He affirmed the U.S.’s respect for independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions of Vietnam, saying that respect is an important foundation of the relationship between the two countries.

He agreed with the cooperation directions mentioned by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong which emphasizes commercial cooperation, clean energy, and energy transformation as potential areas.

The U.S. is committed to promoting peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, and looks forward to the cooperation of Vietnam and other countries in negotiating the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

The two agreed on maintaining peace, stability, cooperation, ensuring freedom of navigation and aviation, not using or threatening to use force in international relations, implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), soon signing an effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden reiterated their invitation for high-level visits. The two leaders accepted the invitation from each other and assigned relevant agencies to arrange visits at an appropriate time.

Vietnam and the U.S. normalized relations in 1995. The two countries established a comprehensive partnership in 2013. Their bilateral trade reached more than US$123 billion in 2022, up 11% from 2021. The U.S. is Vietnam’s largest export for many years, while Vietnam is the eighth largest trading partner of the U.S. in the world and the largest ASEAN partner.

American foreign direct investment in Vietnam currently stays at $11.4 billion, ranked 11th among countries and territories investing directly in Vietnam. About 30,000 Vietnamese students are studying in the U.S., contributing $1 billion to this country’s economy.

The two nations’ cooperation in overcoming war consequences has remained a bright spot in the relationship, making an important contribution to the process of reconciliation, healing and building trust.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh last May paid a week-long visit to the U.S. and took part in more than 60 activities. Experts said that visit helped the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. gain more momentum in many fields.

In August 2021, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited Vietnam for three days, making her the first U.S. Vice President to ever visit Vietnam while in office.