US considers Vietnam one of its key partners in region, say US officials

In Washington D.C., the delegation had meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development Samantha Power, Assistant Secretary of State in charge of East Asia - Asia and Pacific Daniel Kritenbrink, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Sasha Baker, President and CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council Ted Osius, and other former US officials and senators who support the development of Vietnam-US relations.

In New York, the delegation worked with United Nations Under Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder, had an online exchange with US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, and met with close American friends, leftist friends and representatives of the Communist Party of the United States of America.

During the meetings, the two sides agreed that the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership has developed positively in various fields over the past years. US officials affirmed that the US considers Vietnam one of its key partners in the region, and that the two countries’ relations receive support of both Democrats and Republicans.

Appreciating the recent exchanges and contacts between the two sides, especially the successful phone conversation between Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and US President Joe Biden in March 2023, Secretary Blinken, Security Adviser Sullivan and other officials emphasized the desire to maintain exchanges and contacts at all levels, especially high-level meetings, this year when the two countries are celebrating 10 years of their comprehensive partnership. They also vowed to ramp up bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, climate change response, green energy, education - training, settlement of war consequences, people-to-people exchanges, as well as joint effort to solve global problems.

Meanwhile, UN leaders highly appreciated Vietnam’s development success, cooperation and contributions within the UN framework, and expressed their wish that Vietnam would further promote its important role in solving global problems.

Leftist friends and those from the Communist Party USA also spoke highly of Vietnam’s development achievements and voiced their support for Vietnam as well as the development of Vietnam – US relations.

Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung for his part affirmed that Vietnam attaches great importance to relations with the US and it wishes to continue developing relations with the US in the interest of the two peoples, and for peace, friendship, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large.

He suggested that the two sides continue implementing the outcomes of the phone talks between Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden, increasing high-level exchanges and contacts, and improving the efficiency of bilateral cooperation through Party channels, State diplomacy and people to people exchanges.

During his meeting with the UN leaders, Trung assured them that Vietnam highly values the UN’s role and it will continue to make active and responsible contributions to the common affairs of the international community.

For leftist friends and those from the Communist Party USA, Trung thanked them for their support to Vietnam in its past struggle for national liberation and construction. He also put forwards directions to promote cooperation between the two sides in the coming time.