US Secretary of State's Vietnam visit to heighten partnership

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Hanoi on Friday evening, beginning his three-day official visit to Vietnam.

The visit aims to take the two countries’ partnership to the next level, and will build on the momentum of President Joe Biden’s call with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong late last month, said Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian & Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink.

The trip is made at the invitation of Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, as the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Comprehensive Partnership.

The US diplomat is scheduled to hold official talks with Minister Son, and later have meetings with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi on Saturday.

Blinken will also attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new US Embassy campus worth $1.2 billion on Pham Van Bach street, Cau Giay district, Hanoi.

This is Blinken's first visit to Vietnam as a Secretary of State. He had already visited the Southeast Asian country in 2015 and 2016 as Deputy Secretary of State under the Obama administration.

"Vietnam is one of the United States’ most important partners in the region," said Kritenbrink during a press briefing via teleconference ahead of Blinken’s trip to Vietnam.

Kritenbrink served as U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam for the 2017-2021 term.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi announced on Tuesday: "The Secretary will meet with senior Vietnamese officials to discuss our shared vision of a connected, prosperous, peaceful, and resilient Indo-Pacific region."

The U.S. is Vietnam’s biggest export market and one of the top foreign investors in the Southeast Asian country, Gregory Testerman, chairman of AmCham Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, told The Investor in a recent interview.

Many major U.S. multinational companies are expanding their footprints in Vietnam. From March 21-23, the largest ever U.S. business mission with 52 corporations visited Vietnam to sound out business opportunities. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai also paid a three-day visit to Vietnam in February to further cement bilateral trade and investment.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese companies are building their presence in the U.S. as well, Kritenbrink said during the teleconference, adding that Vietnam has become a key link in the global supply chain.

He stressed the broad-based, future-oriented nature of the partnership – including other aspects like healthcare issues, human rights, people-to-people ties, and education – that would benefit both countries and peoples.

On efforts to upgrade diplomatic ties to a strategic partnership, Kritenbrink stressed that “whatever label or bumper sticker you want to put on the relationship, there’s no doubt that this partnership we’ve built with Vietnam is robust, it’s incredibly diverse and broad-ranging.”

He said he believed that the U.S. State Secretary’s trip will advance the partnership and strengthen and deepen it, as did U.S. President Joe Biden during a recent phone call with Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.