Vietnam moves forward with deepening ties with US

President Biden is set to make a state visit to the nation from September 10 to September 11 following an invitation by General Secretary Trong.

The visit aims to realise the invitation between both nations' senior leaders after the phone call conducted on March 29 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive partnership.

Regularly maintaining high-level contacts contributes to the stable, substantive, and long-term development of relations between the two countries across a multitude of fields.

In July, 2013, during the official visit to the US by former Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang, both sides established the "Comprehensive partnership" framework. Over the past decade, they have witnessed ties develop in a deep, effective, and substantive fashion across multiple fields as well as at bilateral, regional, and international levels.

In the bilateral field, the mutual relationship has grown steadily  from politics, diplomacy, economics, and trade to culture, education, science - technology, health, defence – security, and, people-to-people exchanges, with this being true to the meaning of "Comprehensive Partnership".

Economic and trade ties viewed as fastest growing and strongest pillar

It can be said that economic relations represent the driving force for overall relations. Over the past 10 years, two-way trade between has increased more than five times, from US$25 billion in 2012 to currently reach nearly US$140 billion.

The US has become Vietnam's number one trading partner and export market for the first time, while the country has risen to the position of being the US' seventh largest trading partner globally.

US investment in the Vietnamese market is continuously increasing whilst investment by Vietnamese businesses in the US is also becoming a trend.

A prime example of this is the US$4 billion investment by Vietnamese automaker VinFast in North Carolina, along with investment projects of Intel and other US companies in Vietnam which shows confidence in the future prosperity of the two countries.

Educational co-operation has recorded outstanding development. Over the past decade Vietnam has risen from eighth to fifth place in terms of foreign student supply in the US.

Every year there are between 23,000 to 25,000 Vietnamese students studying in the US, with this figure being stronger before the COVID-19 pandemic when some years saw more than 31,000 local students head to study in the US. Currently this figure reaches roughly 30,000 students annually.

Therefore, Vietnam is the leading country in Southeast Asia with students studying in the US, with these figures sending a strong message about trust and friendship between the two countries.

The Vietnamese side has suggested that the US continue to create favorable conditions for the nation to increase the number of Vietnamese students in the US, along with welcoming the building of Fulbright University Vietnam into a high-quality training centre in the region.

In the field of tourism, US tourists consistently remain in the top five of international arrivals to Vietnam, reaching an average of 800,000 per year before the pandemic.

Following the pandemic, the two countries are striving to reach the target of welcoming one million US tourists to Vietnam.

Collaboration in settling the consequences of war continues to be a high priority and has achieved many concrete results amid the two sides devoting a lot of resources and ramping up activities to search and verify the remains of Vietnamese soldiers who died in the war, as well as dioxin detoxification efforts.

Vietnamese agencies have co-ordinated with the US side to search, identify, and return the remains of 733 missing US servicemen.

These important efforts have helped build trust and friendship, promote reconciliation, thus paving the way for a future between the two countries.

All US Presidents visit Vietnam since normalization of relations in 1995

The exchange of high-level visits and regular contacts at multilateral forums has made an important contribution to enhancing understanding and building trust between the two sides.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Dung said that since the normalization of relations in 1995, the two countries have always maintained the regular exchange of delegations and high-level contacts. General Secretary Trong and many senior Vietnamese leaders have visited the US.

All US Presidents since the normalization of relations in 1995 have also visited Vietnam. Exchanges of delegations and high-level contacts are of great significance for maintaining and creating greater momentum for relations between the two nations.

In an interview granted to a VOV reporter in July, US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper said on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of  the "Comprehensive Partnership" the two countries have intensified bilateral meetings.

February this year saw US Trade Representative Catherine Tie visited Vietnam, with this being followed by a series of visits by high-ranking US officials such as the visit of director of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Rochelle P. Walensky, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, as well as Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, and most recently the by Secretary of the Treasury.

In addition, the US sent a high-level congressional delegation consisting of members from both the Democratic and Republican parties representing both the Senate and the House of Representatives to visit the nation. The largest US business delegation ever was also present in the country this year.

According to Ambassador Knapper, all these visits indicate that the US has returned to a very high level of interest in its relationship with the Vietnamese side. Indeed, the US strongly believes in its friendship with Vietnam and in its desire to further deepen the relationship between the two countries.

Respecting territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political systems

In July, 2015, General Secretary Trong officially visited the US for the first time to mark the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

As part of the occasion of this visit, the two sides adopted the Declaration on the Common Vision of Vietnam-US Relations, affirming the continued implementation of deep, sustainable, and substantive relations, on the basis of respect for the Charter of the UN, international laws, political institutions, in addition to each other's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

This spirit continues to be demonstrated during the 10 years of establishing the Comprehensive Partnership between the two countries. In a phone call made in March this year with General Secretary Trong, US President Biden affirmed that the nation is an important partner and his nation supports an "independent, self-reliant and prosperous" Vietnam.

He reaffirmed respect for Vietnamese independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political institutions, agreeing that respect is an important foundation of bilateral relations.

Moreover, US Vice President Kamala Harris during her visit to Vietnam in August, 2021, emphasized the support of the US for a strong, independent, and prosperous Vietnam when meeting with senior Vietnamese leaders,.

During the phone call in March this year, General Secretary Trong stressed that the results achieved in the relations between the two countries are in line with the aspirations of the two peoples, which have been promoted on the basis of respect for the independence of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions of each nation. This is along with mutual understanding, equal and mutually beneficial co-operation, and in the spirit of "putting aside the past, overcoming differences, promoting commonalities and look toward the future".