HCMC – Vietnam and the United States can elevate their bilateral relations to a new height for the sake of their people, and for peace, stability and development in the region and the world, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said at his meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Hanoi today, April 15.
The two nations have made positive achievements in their ties, thus paving the way for their relationship to be elevated to a higher level, the Party chief was quoted by the Vietnam News Agency as saying.
The first official visit to Vietnam by Blinken in his capacity as Secretary of State of the United States is significant as it is happening while the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Partnership.
Party chief Trong stressed the respect for independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions of each other, for peace, stability and development in the region and the world, has laid the foundation for the development of bilateral relations.
He highly valued the outcomes of his phone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden on March 29.
Blinken conveyed wishes and regards of President Joe Biden to the Vietnamese Party leader, saying that the U.S. also highly valued the success of the phone conversation.
He said the U.S. would step up cooperation with Vietnam in multiple areas, especially trade, investment, science, technology, education and climate change response.
The U.S. attaches importance to its relationship with Vietnam, he said, adding he wanted to advance it to a new level.
He also affirmed the U.S. support for ASEAN’s centrality, and its hope for the acceleration of the handling of issues of shared concern through ASEAN mechanisms and frameworks.
Trong welcomed the U.S. support for the concerns of Vietnam and other ASEAN countries over regional and international issues.
On behalf of President Biden, the Secretary of State invited the Party chief to visit the U.S. Trong expressed thanks and asked relevant agencies to arrange the visit at an appropriate time.
He also invited President Biden to visit Vietnam. Blinken said the U.S. President wishes to visit the Southeast Asian nation at an early date.
On the same day, Blinken had meetings with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Le Hoai Trung, head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations.
Blinken and his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the new U.S. Embassy Hanoi Campus. The eight-story building would cost US$1.2 billion.
In his remarks at the ceremony, which the U.S. Department of State posted on its website, Blinken said, “Over the last 27 years, similarly, the ties that connect our countries, Vietnam and the United States, have grown stronger and stronger. And that’s happened in no small part because of our renewed diplomatic presence in Hanoi, because of our exceptional staff – at the embassy, at our consulate in Ho Chi Minh City – who have worked day-in/day-out to forge a relationship that’s robust, that’s dynamic, that’s consequential, and that addresses the needs of the people in both of our countries.”
Today Blinken also held talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and both of them agreed that the two nations should continue with their cooperation and promote bilateral ties on the basis of the principles agreed by their high-ranking leaders.
Regarding the East Sea issue, the two agreed on the importance of peace, security, stability and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea, saying disputes should be settled through peaceful measures in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), and that the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) should be fully implemented towards an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
