President Biden’s visit new milestone in Vietnam-US ties: VP Harris

The upcoming visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to Vietnam is of great importance and will mark a new milestone in their bilateral relationship, Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday.

She stressed this during her third in-person meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in two years. The meeting took place on the sidelines of a September 6 ASEAN-U.S. Summit held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Chinh said Vietnam is working closely with the U.S. side on the preparation for President Biden’s visit to Hanoi, slated for September 10-11.

The two dignitaries expressed satisfaction of the strong progress in the Vietnam-U.S. relationship, which reached the comprehensive partnership level in 2013 and is expected to be upgraded soon.

At a press briefing on September 5, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tipped that bilateral relations will be elevated during Biden’s Vietnam visit.

Vietnam has three levels of diplomatic partnership: comprehensive, strategic, and comprehensive strategic at the top. The country has four comprehensive strategic partners, which are China, Russia, India and South Korea. The Southeast Asian country has announced intentions to bring ties to the top level with Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper told Vietnamese reporters on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s first-ever visit at an invitation of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is significant, because it just “reflects the personal ties of the two leaders, the respect we want to show the General Secretary.”

Chinh and Harris named economy, trade, investment, technology, innovation, education, people-to-people ties, and mitigation of war legacies as sectors to get further attention in bilateral relations.

Since the start of this year, several U.S. cabinet members have visited Vietnam, including Trade Representative Katherine Tai, USAID Director Samantha Power, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Finance Janet Yellen.