General Secretary and President To Lam's working trip to the United States was a great success.

VNA respectfully introduces the content of the interview:

Photo caption — General Secretary and President To Lam speaks at the Future Summit, 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: Lam Khanh/VNA

Could the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister please tell us about the outstanding results of the working trip of the General Secretary and President to attend the Future Summit, the High-level Debate of the 79th United Nations General Assembly and work in the United States?

The working trip of General Secretary and President To Lam and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation to attend the Future Summit, the high-level General Debate of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and work in the United States was a great success, achieving at a high level all the goals and tasks set out with nearly 50 bilateral and multilateral activities of the General Secretary and President.

In the context of the world undergoing epochal changes, the Future Summit and the UN General Assembly attracted the attention and participation of many member countries with more than 155 heads of state and government. This is also a working trip taking place one year after Vietnam and the United States officially upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the two countries are preparing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations. In that context, the working trip achieved the following main results:

Firstly, this is the first multilateral foreign trip of General Secretary and President To Lam to directly attend the UN General Assembly. Through the important speeches of the General Secretary and President, we have conveyed a strong and clear message at the highest level about the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress, expressing Vietnam's aspirations in the era of national development, showing respect and strong support for multilateralism, international law and the UN Charter; at the same time, sharing opinions and, together with other countries, proposing important policy directions to address global challenges.

Second, Vietnam has continued to demonstrate and portray an image of Vietnam as peaceful, stable, friendly, dynamic, innovative, trustworthy and responsible to the international community; a country on the path of strong socio-economic development, wishing to contribute more to common tasks for peace, cooperation and development globally. All of these continue to help affirm the increasing role, position and prestige of Vietnam - a country entering an era of rising in the international arena.

Third, we have succeeded in making the most of our working trips to promote relations with countries and international organizations. General Secretary and President To Lam had dozens of meetings with leaders of countries and international organizations. At the meetings, the partners all expressed their appreciation for Vietnam's growing position, role and voice in the international arena, and agreed to promote comprehensive cooperation in traditional areas of cooperation as well as expanding to new areas of cooperation such as innovation, green technology and digital technology.

Fourth, General Secretary and President To Lam had 27 meetings and contacts with officials, former officials of the government, the National Assembly, the business community, friends, experts, scholars, students and overseas Vietnamese in the United States. The policy speeches at Columbia University, at the event celebrating the first anniversary of the upgrading of relations, towards the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam-US diplomatic relations by the General Secretary and President were widely recognized and highly appreciated by the audience for their important messages guiding the development of Vietnam and the Vietnam-US relationship. Through these activities, we continue to urge the US side to maintain its commitment to Vietnam's top priorities in implementing the new relationship framework, including the issue of market economy, promoting breakthroughs in new areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, high-quality human resource training, cyber security, overcoming the consequences of war, etc.

Through the arrangement of the program and reception, it can be seen that the United States attaches great importance to the working visit of General Secretary and President To Lam and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, with a solemn reception, especially the solemn arrangement of the meeting between President Joe Biden and General Secretary and President To Lam. This shows that the United States truly respects the political system of Vietnam, respects the leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam and wishes to further develop the Vietnam-US comprehensive strategic partnership.

On this occasion, partners and businesses of the two countries also reached many cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding in important fields, especially in the field of training high-quality human resources and investment and trade cooperation in the fields of high technology and clean energy.

Deputy Prime Minister, could you please tell us the direction of implementing the results of the working trip?

Building on the above results, in the coming time, we need to focus on the following priorities:

With the UN, we need to continue to increase our proactive, active, responsible, creative and effective participation in the activities of the UN and multilateral forums; demonstrate our own role and identity through specific commitments, practical initiatives and contributions commensurate with our role and position. In addition, we need to continue to promote the achieved results to continue to firmly consolidate a stable and favorable foreign situation for national construction and defense, as well as demonstrate comprehensive and modern diplomacy on all three pillars: party diplomacy, state diplomacy and people-to-people diplomacy. We also need to continue to promote in-depth relations to maximize international support and assistance and assistance from important partners in terms of resources, technology transfer, capacity building, green transformation, digital transformation to contribute to national development, as well as to ensure a peaceful and stable environment.

With the United States, the working trip contributes to creating a solid foundation for local ministries and sectors to promote strategic, breakthrough, substantive and mutually beneficial cooperation areas. Accordingly, in the coming time, we need to focus on promoting the following areas:

Firstly, continue to strengthen political trust through contact and delegation exchange activities at all channels and levels, especially at high levels.

Second, promote economic - trade - investment cooperation, the key area and driving force of bilateral relations, creating a favorable environment for business activities of both sides.

Third, bring science and technology cooperation, a breakthrough field of the comprehensive strategic partnership, to a new level, with priority given to finding breakthroughs in new fields such as semiconductors, AI, and green transformation; along with training high-quality human resources.

Fourth, effectively implement existing agreements on defense and security cooperation, in which overcoming the consequences of war continues to be a high priority, focusing on dioxin remediation, mine clearance at hot spots, supporting people with disabilities, searching for, collecting and identifying the remains of Vietnamese martyrs. Vietnam will continue to fully cooperate with the United States in searching for US soldiers missing in action during the war.

Fifth, strengthen coordination and contribute more to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, including promoting ASEAN's central role and further promoting the ASEAN-US comprehensive strategic partnership and the Mekong-US partnership; at the same time, enhance the effectiveness of cooperation in handling non-traditional security challenges such as climate change, cyber security, water security, etc.

Sixth, continue to focus on dialogue, sharing and mutual support to narrow differences.

Thank you very much Deputy Prime Minister and Minister!