Sci-tech, innovation breakthroughs in Vietnam-US ties: diplomat

While trade and investment will have high priority in bilateral ties, science, technology and innovation can provide breakthroughs in cooperation between Vietnam and the U.S., a senior Vietnamese diplomat has said.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc told the press Friday that as economic and trade ties remain a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation, the two countries will focus on supply chains, infrastructure development, skilled labor force training, energy transition, digital economy, green economy, and manufacturing.

The two sides will also work closely on creating digital platforms, semiconductor ecosystems and artificial intelligence-based applications. Other sectors such as energy transition, biotechnology, health, and pharmaceuticals will also receive due attention, he added.

Ngoc named other areas in which cooperation will be strengthened, including the mitigation of war legacies, UN peacekeeping, military medical training, rescue and relief operations, maritime and aviation capacity building.

The deputy foreign minister said Biden’s visit will be the first state-level visit by a U.S. President at the invitation of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is also the first time that both the president and vice president of the U.S. have visited Vietnam in a single term.

The visit underscores the importance the two countries attach to each other in their foreign policies and their policies towards the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean in particular, Ngoc added.

In nearly three decades since the normalization of bilateral relations, two-way trade has enjoyed impressive growth, soaring from $450 million in 1995 to $123 billion in 2022, official data shows.

Vietnam has become the seventh largest trade partner of the U.S. globally and its biggest trade partner in ASEAN. Since 2022, the U.S. has become Vietnam's largest export market with value exceeding $100 billion.

In terms of investment, U.S. had poured over $11 billion into Vietnam as of last year, not to mention investments made through U.S. companies' subsidiaries in third countries.