Mr. Joe Biden is not the first US president to visit Vietnam, but he is the first US president to pay an official visit to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. That alone speaks to the special nature of this visit.
US President Joe Biden - Photo: REUTERS
Tuoi Tre would like to introduce the comments of Mr. NGUYEN QUOC CUONG - former Vietnamese Ambassador to the US.
Special visit
The upcoming visit to Vietnam by US President Joe Biden is of great significance. First of all, this is an occasion for the two countries to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership. I believe that the two countries' senior leaders will together evaluate and reach a consensus on the strong and comprehensive developments in the bilateral relationship over the past 10 years, and at the same time set out major directions for the coming years.
It is also worth noting that since the two countries normalized relations in 1995, all US presidents, whether Republican or Democratic, have visited Vietnam - perhaps the only Southeast Asian country to which all US presidents have made official visits.
Even with many countries that are allies of the US, not every president can visit. That proves that the US has reached a high consensus in promoting all-round relations with Vietnam, recognizing and valuing the position and role of Vietnam in the region and on the international stage.
In March this year, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden had a very important phone call, in which the top leaders of the two countries agreed to assign relevant agencies of both sides to coordinate and discuss measures to further deepen the relationship in the coming years.
Immediately after the phone call, a series of visits between Vietnamese and US officials took place, including visits to Vietnam by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai...
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (right) receives US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Government Office in Hanoi on April 15, 2023 - Photo: Reuters
I hope that during Mr. Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Vietnam, the leaders of the two countries will take new measures to strengthen and deepen the Vietnam-US relationship for many years to come.
Dynamic development as well as increasing international role and prestige put Vietnam in a better position to cooperate with the US in new areas, on global issues such as climate change, digital transformation, green transformation, healthcare, food security and ensuring global supply chains.
10 years of building trust
Looking back at 10 years of Comprehensive Partnership, I assess that the relationship between the two countries has developed strongly in both breadth and depth in all fields.
In the joint statement on the establishment of the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership in 2013 during the visit of President Truong Tan Sang, the two countries identified the basic principles in the relationship. These are: Respect for independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; Respect for each other's political institutions; Respect for international law and the United Nations Charter.
Building trust between the two countries is very important. Vietnam and the US have actively worked together to resolve the consequences of the war, such as clearing bombs and mines and cleaning up dioxin. In particular, the principle of respecting each other's political institutions has been repeatedly affirmed by US leaders during their visits to Vietnam or when receiving Vietnamese leaders visiting the US. US leaders also pledged to support Vietnam's prosperous, independent and strong development.
In the 2013 joint statement, the two countries also identified nine priority areas of cooperation including: politics, diplomacy, security - defense, economics - trade - investment, education, science - technology, health, environment and people-to-people exchange.
I see strong developments in all the above-mentioned areas, especially in the field of economic-trade-investment cooperation. Mechanisms for political dialogue, security, defense cooperation and many other areas are maintained regularly. The two sides have had frank and open discussions on issues of difference in order to narrow differences and enhance understanding.
All of the above developments will be important premises for the two countries to consider further elevating bilateral relations in the coming years.
For the above reasons, I am quite optimistic about the further development of the bilateral relationship. I wish Mr. Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Vietnam will achieve many substantive results, for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, stability and development of the region and the world.
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