State President Nguyen Minh Triet and his wife returned to Hanoi on June 24, successfully concluding the official visit to the US at the invitation of US President George W. Bush and his wife. The success of the visit has opened a new page in the history of Vietnam-US relations.

This was considered a historic visit, as it was the first official visit to the US by a leader of unified and independent Vietnam since the end of the war 32 years ago, marking a new period of completely normalized bilateral relations. The visit has affirmed the two countries’ partnership, as well as their mutual respect for the role and position of each country. Both sides are now focused on strategic issues related to the development of bilateral ties, namely friendship and cooperation in the fields of economics, trade and investment.

During his five-day visit to the US, Mr Triet noted that Vietnamese people were willing to put aside the past and ready to boost friendship, solidarity and cooperation with the US. The image of the Vietnamese President walking and doing morning exercises together with American people in Washington, and visiting a farmer’s family in Virginia would be remembered by the American people as a symbol of the friendliness and open-heartedness of the Vietnamese people.

Striving for peace and cooperation is a common wish as well as an inevitable trend in the development of bilateral relations. Before and during the visit, a number of Vietnamese language newspapers in foreign countries had assumed that talks between President Triet and President Bush at the White House would be tense, and that Mr Bush would criticize Vietnam about human rights and religious matters. In fact, the talks between the two leaders took place in a friendly and open manner. Both sides agreed to focus on developing trade and economic relations in order to create a solid foundation for promoting bilateral cooperation in science and technology, education and settlement of war-related issues. With regard to issues left over by historical conditions and characteristics of each country, they pledged to continue dialogues in the hope of achieving a better mutual understanding and preventing the negative impacts of these issues on the development of bilateral ties.

Doan Xuan Hung, Director of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Economics said the two leaders consider trade and economic relations a pillar in bilateral relations in the future. The US is the world’s largest economy and considers Vietnam a significant market in the region. Now that Vietnam is developing strongly, not only the US but also many other countries regard Vietnam as a development center where their investors can enjoy good opportunities to do business in the long run.

While visiting New York, Washington and Los Angeles, President Triet met with leaders of  US leading economic groups, delivered speeches at business forums and called on US businesses to further invest in Vietnam. Mr Triet also called at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the financial centre of the US economy, where he delivered a message that Vietnam was determined to develop a market economy and turn the stock exchange into an important capital mobilization channel for the national economy. The message was warmly welcomed by US investors.

Many Vietnamese business leaders accompanying President Triet on the occasion signed economic agreements and contracts totally worth US$11 billion. This record figure shows prospects for long-term economic co-operation and also indicates the fine development of friendship between the two countries.

President Triet’s visit to the US aimed not only to promote Vietnam’s image of friendship, dynamism and openness to the US but also to reaffirm the Vietnamese Party and State’s policy of considering Vietnamese residents abroad and those in the US in particular as an indispensable part of the Vietnamese nation. Currently, as many as 1.5 million Americans of Vietnamese origin live in the US, accounting for half of the total number of overseas Vietnamese in the world.

Before the visit, President Triet had said that one of the purposes was to visit overseas Vietnamese in the US. Soon after he set foot in New York, Washington and Los Angeles, he met with overseas Vietnamese. His speech in front of nearly 1,000 overseas Vietnamese in Cam County, Los Angeles, touched their hearts. Mr Triet called on them to put aside differences and unite for the purpose of building a strong and powerful Vietnam.

While in Vietnam, Nguyen Cao Ky, former Vice President of the old Saigon regime, took a flight  back to Los Angeles to attend a meeting with President Triet. Mr Ky said: “Previously, I had once stood on the other side of the front line. Now, after hearing Mr Triet’s talk, I would like to tell my old colleagues who remain resentful of the past that all disputes have ended. If they dot not understand, they can sit down for dialogue or return to Vietnam to develop a better understanding.”