​Since Vietnam-US relations have been normalized and two countries have officially established diplomatic relations, up to now, Vietnam - US relations have become a comprehensive partnership from politics - diplomacy, economy, education, science - technology to national defense and security; With the dynamics of further consolidated and intensive cooperation, the cooperation fields are increasingly expanded, diversified, substantive, effective and ensure harmonious interests of strategic importance between two countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the ASEAN-US Special Summit on May 12 and 13 in Washington, D.C., the United States at the invitation of the President of the United States of America - Joseph Robinette Biden Jr; At the same time, he also visited and worked in the United States and the United Nations from May 11 to May 17.

 

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Joe Biden agreed to further promote the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership. Photo of GN

This visit and working trip in the United States is the first one of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in the context that Vietnam has controlled the COVID-19 pandemic nationwide and ready to open the international transaction, implementing the program of rapid recovery and sustainable socio-economic development, active integration into the world in a comprehensive, extensive, substantive and effective manner.

The visit continues to contribute to promoting the well - developed Comprehensive Partnership, in line with the common goals and interests of the two countries Vietnam and the United States.

Since Vietnam-US relations have been normalized and two countries have officially established diplomatic relations, up to now, Vietnam - US relations have become a comprehensive partnership from politics - diplomacy, economy, education, science - technology to national defense and security; With the dynamics of further consolidated and intensive cooperation, the cooperation fields are increasingly expanded, diversified, substantive, effective and ensure harmonious interests of strategic importance between two countries.

The Comprehensive Partnership is growing stronger and stronger

After the announcement of the normalization of relations and official establishment of diplomatic relations, on August 5, 1995, in Hanoi, US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam signed a Protocol, officially establishing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States.

Soon after, the two countries opened Embassies in Washington and Hanoi (in August 1995).

In November of 2000, US President William J. Clinton visited Vietnam. Mr. Clinton is the first US President to make an official visit to Vietnam. Mr. Clinton is considered an important contributor to the process of normalizing Vietnam-US relations both during his term and even end of term.

The historic handshake of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President George W. Bush at the White House on June 21, 2005, during the official visit to the United States from June 19 to June 25, 2005, marked the new development in bilateral relations after 10 years of normalization. This is also the first official visit to the US of the Head of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after 30 years since the end of the war. (Photo: AP/VNA broadcast)

In June of 2005, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai visited the United States. This is the first time a Vietnamese Prime Minister has visited the United States after the war. During this visit, the two countries signed an Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation as well as Agreements on international ratification, intelligence and military cooperation. The Prime Minister, along with more than 100 representatives of the public and private sectors, visited three other cities and signed many major business deals.

In November of 2006, US President George W. Bush paid a 4-day visit to Vietnam within the framework of the (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) APEC Economic Leaders' Meetings.

In June of 2007, President Nguyen Minh Triet paid an official visit to the United States at the invitation of President George W. Bush. The President had a meeting with President George W. Bush to discuss economic and trade cooperation. Deputy Minister of Trade Nguyen Cam Tu and Deputy Trade Representative Karan Bhatia signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) on June 21.

In July of 2013, President Truong Tan Sang visited the United States at the invitation of President Barack Obama. The major result of the visit was that the two parties established the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership, shaping the bilateral relationship framework for a new period as well as the development direction of the relationship in the coming years.

In July of 2015, on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Normalization of the US – Vietnam Relations, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong paid an official visit to the United States. After the meeting between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and US President Barack Obama, the two parties adopted the Vietnam - US Joint Vision Statement, showing the frankness and openness between the leaders of Vietnam and the US. in exchange of previous issues which were considered sensitive. The relationship between Vietnam and the United States in the future will be more substantive and deeper when all aspects of cooperation are not hindered by differences.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong held talks with President Barack Obama, on July 7, 2015, at the White House in Washington, D.C. during his official visit to the United States from July 6 to July 10, 2015. This is the first visit to the US of the Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam since the end of the war, marking a new important milestone, opening a new page in the relationship between the two countries. (Photo: Tri Dung/VNA)

In May of 2016, US President Barack Obama paid an official visit to Vietnam and had a Meeting with President Tran Dai Quang at the Presidential Palace. President Obama officially announced the important Decision of the US on lifting the arms embargo on Vietnam.

The Vietnam - US Joint Statement signed after this state-level talks shows a lot of commitments on strengthening cooperation between the two countries in all fields. Many important and large-scale documents and projects were signed.

In May of 2017, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc paid an official visit to the United States at the invitation of President Donald Trump. The visit opened a new chapter in the Comprehensive Partnership between Vietnam and the United States. The two parties committed to maintaining and developing the relationship, and at the same time reached a common understanding of the new framework of comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and the United States in the coming time, creating new dynamics to contribute to the Comprehensive Partnership between the two countries, contributing to peace and prosperity in the region and in the world.

In November of 2017, US President Donald J. Trump paid a State visit to Vietnam and attended the 2017 APEC Summit from 11-12 of November.

In the Joint Statement between the United States and Vietnam, the two parties agreed to continue to deepen the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership on the principle of respecting independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions of each other.

In February of 2019, US President Donald Trump attended the second US - North Korea Summit in Hanoi with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and had meetings with senior leaders of Vietnam.

In September of 2021, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a senior delegation of the Party and State of Vietnam attended the High - Level Week of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and had a number of bilateral activities in the United States.

In addition, there were meetings between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Joe Biden and Special Envoy John Kerry on the sidelines of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)  in the UK (in October of 2021)…

The high-level visits of the leaders of the two countries over the past time have really deepened the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership, promoting the development of the relationship on the basis of mutual benefits and equality, mutual respect, independence, sovereignty and political institutions.

Over the past time, despite the complicated COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries have still maintained dialogue mechanisms online and flexibly implemented mutual exchanges in writing and by phonecall.

During the exchanges, the US reaffirmed its commitment to support a "developing, independent and prosperous" Vietnam, continued to appreciate its position and attach importance to relations with Vietnam, suggested that the two countries continue to take steps to strengthen ties, with priority given to economic - trade, security - defence, health and energy cooperation.

Economic - trade cooperation has grown in various fields

Along with good political relations, Vietnam - US economic - trade cooperation which  is considered as the most successful field of cooperation, has been the focus, foundation and driving force for development of the common relationship between the two countries.

Currently, the United States is one of Vietnam's largest trading partners. Two-way merchandise trade turnover has increased more than 170 times, from $450 million in 1995 to $77.6 billion in 2019; 90.8 billion USD in 2020 and more than 111.56 billion USD in 2021. The US continues to be Vietnam's largest export market, and Vietnam becomes the 9th largest trading partner of the US.

An important feature in the bilateral economic and trade relations between Vietnam and the United States is their complementarity. Specifically, the United States has a great need to import Vietnam’s specific agricultural products or its strengths such as: textiles, footwear, furniture, electronic machinery and equipment...

On the other hand, Vietnam has demand to import machinery, high-tech equipment, aviation equipment, telecommunications and agricultural raw materials, which the US has abundant supply.

Regarding investment, by March of  2022, US direct investment in Vietnam reached 10.3 billion USD, ranking 11th out of 141 countries and territories with FDI in Vietnam. Large US enterprises continue to pay attention and invest in the Vietnamese market, such as: Intel announced an additional investment of about 500 million USD in its factory in Ho Chi Minh City; Apple's main manufacturing partner (Foxconn) additionally invests $270 million in Bac Giang...

The US side expressed its willingness to promote cooperation in areas of interest to Vietnam such as infrastructure development, supply chain, energy, and digital economy. Recently, on March 29, 2022, Vinfast Group also signed a contract to build a 4 billion USD electric vehicle and battery factory in North Carolina (USA).

In the coming time, the ministries and sectors of Vietnam and the United States will continue to actively cooperate to comprehensively address the concerns of the United States and Vietnam, thereby maintaining stable trade relations, aiming to a harmonious and sustainable trade balance for mutual benefits.

Promoting and maintaining defense - security cooperation

Defense - security cooperation between Vietnam and the United States was established right after its normalization in 1995 and there have been positive and substantive progress in dealing with war consequences and cooperation in various fields.

In June of 2015, the Defense Ministers of the two countries signed the Joint Vision Statement on defense cooperation between Vietnam and the United States. In particular, on May 23, 2016, within the framework of the official visit to Vietnam, US President Barack Obama announced the complete lifting of embargo on sales of lethal weapons to Vietnam, making a meaningful step forward. This deepens the Vietnam - US comprehensive partnership, making an important contribution to strengthening trust between the two countries to strengthen cooperation to effectively deal with security threats in the region.

During an official visit to Vietnam, on the morning of June 1, 2015, in Hanoi, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh signed the Joint Vision Statement between the two countries' Defense Ministries on the defense relations. (Photo: Trong Duc/VNA)

The fields of bilateral cooperation have been expanded to military medical training, humanitarian relief cooperation, disaster assistance, peacekeeping, information sharing, capacity building for counter - terrorism, and cybersecurity, water security... The United States has actively supported Vietnam to overcome the consequences of war, improve the capacity of Vietnam's coast guard and navy, and support its international peacekeeping force.

Vietnam, the United States and other countries actively cooperate in maintaining freedom of navigation and implementing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNCLOS 1982 in the East Sea area. The two parties support the views on ensuring freedom and security of navigation and aviation and respect for international law and UNCLOS; peaceful resolution of disputes through diplomatic and legal processes, without the use of force or the threat of force; with no actions to escalate tensions in the region.

Many cooperation opportunities in various fields

In 2000, Vietnam and the United States signed an Agreement on cooperation in science and technology and established the Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation. The  Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (Agreement 123) officially signed on May 6, 2014 has opened up great opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in the potential civil nuclear field.

The United States and Vietnam have initially cooperated on outer space with the Joint Declaration of Intent on Exchange of Cooperation in the field of space research (December 2011) of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.

Cooperation in education, training, and health is also an important factor in the relationship between the two countries. The United States has maintained and increased its budget for activities to remediate the consequences of the war in Vietnam, including a project to clean up dioxin-contaminated hot spots, and support Agent Orange/dioxin victims.

In recent years, Vietnam and the United States have cooperated especially closely in the fight against COVID-19 and post-pandemic recovery.

The United States ranks first among the countries that provide vaccines to Vietnam through the COVAX mechanism, having donated nearly 39 million doses of vaccines to Vietnam through this mechanism along with many other medical supplies and equipment for pandemic prevention and control. The US has transferred to Vietnam 111 deep freezers to preserve the Pfizer vaccine; proposed to provide aid to the US-made CUE rapid test kit and coordinate the transfer of the latest mRNA vaccine technology and therapeutic drugs to Vietnamese partners.

The US also opened the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Southeast Asia in Hanoi, on the occasion of Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to Vietnam (in August of 2021).

Vice versa, when the pandemic situation in the US was urgent, Vietnam also supported the US with personal protective equipment and antibacterial cloth masks, which were highly appreciated by the US...

It can be said that, since the normalization of relations, the common interests between the two countries have been increasing, creating the foundation and driving force for the development of Vietnam - US relations.

Following the achievements, this visit to the US led by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the Vietnamese delegation is expected to create a driving force to promote the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership for further development, efficiency, depth, long-term stability in all fields of politics - diplomacy, economy – trade -investment, science - technology, education - training and recovery of consequences of war.

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