(CLO) It can be affirmed that the Vietnam-US relationship has never been as good as it is now. That shows the importance of Vietnam in the US's Asia-Pacific policy. Therefore, even with the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House with the slogan "America first", besides the challenges, a great opportunity for Vietnam will also be revealed.
Good relations between Vietnam and the US during Trump's first term
During his first term in the White House, Donald Trump became the only US President to visit Vietnam twice while in office. The first time was in 2017 when Mr. Trump attended the APEC Summit in Da Nang. The second time was in 2019 during the US-North Korea summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On both visits to Vietnam, President Donald Trump was warmly welcomed and received a warm welcome from the Vietnamese people. In 2019 in Hanoi, Mr. Trump was surprised by Vietnam's development, commenting that he was "impressed with the speed of development of your country over the past 25 years" (since the US-Vietnam normalized relations in 1995).
Scene of the meeting between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and US President Donald Trump in 2019.
Four years into the hiatus between Trump's two terms, Democratic US President Joe Biden also visited Vietnam. In Hanoi, a new milestone in Vietnam-US relations was established when former General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Biden officially signed an agreement to elevate bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Vietnam's highest level of diplomatic relations. At the reception, President Biden even recited the poem Kieu, demonstrating the special interest of the White House leader in our country.
In response, Vietnamese leaders have recently made working visits to Washington. Within the framework of the summit at the United Nations, General Secretary To Lam had a busy schedule in the US in late September 2024. He also delivered an important speech expressing Vietnam's foreign policy at the prestigious Columbia University. Previously, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also made two consecutive visits to the US in 2022 and 2023. These visits by Vietnamese Party and Government leaders in the US have further strengthened the relationship between the two countries.
The results of these consecutive high-level visits have been materialized in historic achievements. For the past three consecutive years, Vietnam-US bilateral trade turnover has exceeded the 100 billion USD mark, nearly 3 times higher than in 2016 - the first year of Mr. Trump's first term. The United States has also started construction of a new embassy in Hanoi with a budget of billions of USD in 2023. In the opposite direction, large Vietnamese enterprises have also gradually put their names on the map of countries with businesses investing in the United States such as VinFast...
Prospects for strengthening relations between the two countries
Returning to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump is confirmed to continue pursuing the policy of “America first”, “bringing jobs back to America”… with the goal of “Making America great again”. In his first term, the Trump administration fulfilled its promise by imposing high taxes on competitors, leaving multilateral commitments on the grounds that America did not benefit, even allies were financially pressured by Trump… However, Vietnam-US trade turnover during this period still grew well. If in 2016 it was less than 40 billion USD, in 2020, the last year of Trump’s first term, it more than doubled to exceed 90 billion USD.
From an economic perspective, four years later, the new administration of Donald Trump will likely continue to use high tariffs to protect domestic goods, pursuing a policy of keeping American businesses in the country and attracting foreign businesses to invest in the country. In addition, choosing venture capitalist DJ Vance as his “deputy” or allying with billionaire Elon Musk in the election campaign is a completely intentional move by Mr. Trump.
And this could be a great opportunity for Vietnam. Vietnam’s trade balance is in surplus, and the United States is even one of Vietnam’s largest import markets. Major products such as textiles, seafood, footwear, cashews, coffee, handicrafts, etc. are all in the processing and light industries. They are essential goods, not in the category of the fierce technology race taking place between the major powers.
In recent years, Vietnamese leaders have been very successful in macro management. In addition to maintaining political stability, economic breakthroughs have been very impressive. Policies to cut administrative procedures, clean up the economic and investment environment, etc. have been constantly mentioned by our Party and Government. That will also be the basis for believing that demanding American businesses in the coming years under Mr. Trump will increasingly increase their investment in Vietnam.
As the prospects of the relationship between the two countries are promoted, leading Vietnamese corporations have more opportunities to set foot on American soil. The event of Vinfast launching its first electric car model in the US in 2021, opening a sales system in 2022, listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange and starting construction of a factory in the same year 2023 are groundbreaking and symbolic milestones. And together with large Vietnamese technology corporations such as FPT... which are cooperating in many fields with Silicon Valley, our country is gradually making its mark in the high-tech race, an economic development trend that is affirmed to shape the future of the world.
Huy Nam
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/quan-he-viet-nam--my-nhung-trien-vong-phat-trien-khi-ong-donald-trump-tro-lai-nha-trang-post320877.html
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