President Joe Biden’s visit – An important milestone

Prior to the visit, Ms. Le Thu Ha, Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam – United States Parliamentary Friendship Group, was interviewed by a reporter from the Vietnam News Agency (TTXVN). .

Can you share the meaning of President Joe Biden’s visit to Vietnam this time?

US President Joe Biden’s visit to Vietnam is very important for relations between the two countries, especially on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Vietnam – US Comprehensive Partnership. This is the first time the President and Vice President of the United States have visited Vietnam in one term.

This visit will be an important historical milestone for Vietnam and the United States under President Joe Biden, and contribute to pushing relations between the two countries to a higher level for the sake of peace, cooperation, comprehensive and lasting development.

This visit was also carried out in the context of the Asia-Pacific region and Southeast Asia continuing to be one of the most dynamic developing regions in the world. ASEAN continues to promote its central role in regional structures. The United States and ASEAN established a comprehensive strategic partnership in November 2022.

How do you assess the relations between the two countries in the current period, especially the friendly exchanges between Vietnamese and American parliamentarians?

The United States is one of Vietnam’s most important partners. The Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership has recently developed deeply and substantially in priority areas of cooperation including politics – diplomacy, security – defense, economy – trade – investment, investment, education, science – technology, health, environment, overcome the consequences of war, advance humanitarian rights. In particular, economic, financial, trade and investment cooperation are its pillars. The United States affirmed its respect for Vietnam’s political institutions and supports Vietnam to become a “strong, prosperous and independent” country.

In line with this, economic and trade cooperation is developing rapidly and is driving bilateral relations with trade turnover between the two countries in 2022 reaching a record figure of 123 billion USD. Vietnam has been one of the United States’ eight largest trading partners, and the United States has continued to be Vietnam’s largest export market for many years.

Security and defense cooperation has achieved real progress, where overcoming the impact of the war continues to be a bright spot in relations between the two countries, making an important contribution to the process of reconciliation, healing and building trust. for cooperation in other important areas.

Educational cooperation has achieved many positive steps with both sides promoting educational cooperation – training and technology transfer.

In addition, medical cooperation, the response to COVID-19, and post-pandemic recovery continue to be a bright spot, especially as both parties support each other in terms of medical equipment, access to vaccines, and sharing of experiences, disease prevention and control, and citizen protection. To date, the United States has supported Vietnam with more than 40 million vaccine doses and a wealth of medical technical equipment.

Both parties continue to strengthen cooperation in responding to climate change and the energy transition. The United States is committed to supporting Vietnam in achieving its goals at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) and updating its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) at COP27. The two countries encouraged the establishment and organization of the activities of the Climate Change Working Group of the Governments of Vietnam and the United States, implementing the Political Declaration on the Establishment of a Partnership for a Just Energy Transition (JETP).

The two countries continue to coordinate closely on international and regional issues of mutual concern; especially within the framework of the UN Security Council and within the ASEAN mechanism.

It can be said that the US Congress has a very important role in developing and deepening the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership. Cooperation between the National Assemblies of the two countries is an important element in the overall bilateral relations between the two countries.

The National Assembly of Vietnam highly appreciates the previous generation of senators such as the late Senator John McCain, former Permanent President of the US Senate Patrick Leahy, former Senator John Kerry who is very sympathetic to Vietnam. normalization of relations between the two countries, actively supporting and caring in advancing relations between the two countries. We welcome new lawmakers like Jeff Mekley, Peter Welch, Van Hollen, Dean Phillips… who are committed to continuing the efforts of previous generations of lawmakers to improve relations with Vietnam.

It can be emphasized that, with the efforts of both parties, the cooperative relations between the National Assemblies of the two countries have experienced many strong developments in recent times, which is demonstrated through the increase in mutual visits at all levels, especially at the senior level; Exchange activities and contacts between specialized agencies of the National Assembly, members of parliament, parliamentary assistants…

This year alone, the US Congress sent 5 delegations to visit Vietnam, including: Senator Jeff Merkley’s delegation; Senator Mike Crapo; Taxation Committee Chairman Jason Smith; Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Maritime Subcommittee, Trent Kelly; United States Senate Appropriations Committee Assistant Team.

On the National Assembly side, Vietnam also appointed Chairman of the Delegation of the National Defense and Security Committee Le Tan Toi; Chair of the Committee on Science, Technology and the Environment – Chair of the Vietnam – United States Parliamentary Friendship Group Le Quang Huy; Chairman of the People’s Volunteer Committee Duong Thanh Binh; Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee visits the United States. In addition, many members of our National Assembly also joined ministerial and branch delegations on working visits to the United States.

Through exchanges and contacts, it is clear that there are similarities in interests in strengthening cooperation between the two countries at the bilateral, regional and global levels.

All US lawmakers emphasized that relations with Vietnam are one of the few issues on which both the Democratic and Republican parties have reached consensus, as well as the consensus of the US Senate and House of Representatives.

In your opinion, how can the results achieved after this visit contribute to creating momentum and deepening Vietnam-US relations in the future?

The US President’s visit is an important milestone in relations between the two countries. The results achieved during this visit will contribute to bringing relations between the two countries to a new, deeper and more substantive level, for the sake of peace, cooperation and sustainable development.

Therefore, I hope that both parties will actively coordinate to establish and implement new and more effective bilateral and multilateral economic – trade – investment cooperation mechanisms to maintain and encourage development. Develop trade and investment quickly and sustainably.

At the same time, we hope that the US side will support and help Vietnam complete the institutional, legal and financial framework for a balanced energy transition, aligning the benefits/costs for the country, society and business in the energy transition roadmap, in the near future, devoting resources power to effectively and practically support the JETP program and cooperative initiatives/projects within the framework of the Mekong – United States partnership.

Strongly developing a digital economy, digital government, and digital society are areas where Vietnam urgently needs support from the United States, especially in improving institutions and laws to carry out a safe and responsive digital transformation.

It is hoped that through new strategies and initiatives, the United States will continue to demonstrate its strong commitment in supporting ASEAN centrality, the ASEAN-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and the ASEAN-US comprehensive strategic partnership. Mekong Partner – the United States.

Regarding cooperation between the two Parliaments, I am sure that relations between the two Parliaments will be actively promoted to be commensurate with the Comprehensive Partnership between the two countries. I hope both sides can increase delegation exchanges at all levels, especially senior levels; At the same time, we hope that both parties will establish a mechanism for regular exchange and dialogue between the two legislative bodies.

Thank you so much for your sharing!