Vietnam-US Relations: Turning Impossible into Possible

Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Cuong (right) directly participated in the preparation for the official visit to the US by President Truong Tan Sang from July 23-26, 2013.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has a visit to Vietnam, at the invitation of Minister Bui Thanh Son. Regarding Vietnam-US relations, what do you think is the significance of the visit?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Vietnam from April 14-16 is an important milestone in the positive development of the relationship between Vietnam and the US in recent years, especially the maintenance of regular contact at a high level after a period of stagnation because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In May 2022, we witnessed a successful visit to the US and attended the ASEAN-US Special Summit of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh with more than 60 bilateral and multilateral activities.

After that, the Prime Minister also had the opportunity to meet and discuss with President Joe Biden at the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits in Cambodia in November 2022.

The most recent was a high-level phone conversation between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden on March 29 with important and substantive contents. The two top leaders said that the relationship has been developing comprehensively, and agreed to deepen the relationship between the two countries in the coming years.

People paid close attention to the fact that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and US President Joe Biden repeated their invitation to visit each other at a high level. Both leaders gladly accepted the invitation and assigned the relevant agencies to arrange at a suitable time.

US Secretary of State Blinken's visit to Vietnam this weekend should be placed in the development of relations between the two countries over the years, as well as in maintaining those regular high-level contacts. Personally, I wish Blinken's visit to Vietnam to achieve substantive results, concretizing the exchanges and agreements at the highest level between the two countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visit Vietnam from April 14-16. Photo: Reuters

The year 2023 marks 10 years since the two countries established the Comprehensive Partnership. Having been an "insider" who witnessed an important event between the two countries a decade ago, what do you remember and love the most?

I was honored to witness and directly participate in the preparation for the visit to the US by former President Truong Tan Sang to negotiate the Joint Declaration establishing the Comprehensive Partnership between Vietnam and the US in July 2013, when I was working as Vietnam Ambassador to the US.

The visit actually took place in just a few days, but was prepared by many ministries and branches of both countries for many months before.

What I am most interested in is the foresight of the leaders of both countries. The two countries were former enemies, experienced a fierce war, leaving heavy consequences for both sides, especially in Vietnam.

Overcoming those barriers, leaving the past behind and looking to the future, is easy said, but not so easy in reality. In both countries, there are different opinions and that is completely understandable.

During the preparation for the visit, I frankly discussed with my colleagues at the White House and the US State Department that, even among the leaders of Vietnam, there are people who have been arrested and tortured during the war, some have lost their loved ones, some people still have fragments of American bombs and bullets in them. However, now they agree to upgrade relations with the US, it is indeed a great opportunity not to be missed for both sides.

Perhaps that is also one of the reasons that the United States agreed to recognize in the 2013 Joint Statement the principles of the Comprehensive Partnership, including the principle of respecting each other's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions. This is also what I am interested in.

How do you feel about the new advances in "quantity" and "quality" in Vietnam-US relations?

My assessment is that in the past ten years, the relationship between Vietnam and the US has been developing strongly and in the right direction.

Ten years ago, the leaders of the two countries identified nine areas of cooperation in the Comprehensive Partnership. These are political and diplomatic relations, trade and economic relations, science and technology, education and training, environment and health, settlement of war consequences, national defense and security, protect and promote human rights, culture, sports and tourism.

Looking back, the relationship between the two countries in all nine areas has made good progress.

Economic and trade relations have grown strongly, becoming a main pillar in bilateral relations. Two-way trade reached a record of US$123 billion in 2022, Vietnam's exports to the US exceeded US$100 billion for the first time. The number of Vietnamese students in the US is over 30,000 students, the largest among students from ASEAN countries coming to the US.

I was impressed when General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong suggested to President Joe Biden that the US continue to create favorable conditions to increase the number of Vietnamese students in the US, and welcome the development of Fulbright University Vietnam into a center of high quality training in the region.

Between the two countries, there are opportunities for cooperation in new fields such as response to climate change, post-pandemic economic recovery including supply chain assurance, logistics, cooperation in the digital economy, green transformation and health.

Therefore, the potential for cooperation between the two countries on both bilateral and multilateral levels is huge.

You once shared that, with anything, it must happen in the right order, at the right time. Perhaps despite the expectations that are always pressing, the Vietnam - US relations have gone in the right order and developed according to the inherent nature. What do you expect now about a "new landing" of bilateral relations?

It is true that the relationship between Vietnam and the US is a special relationship: from a former enemy to a comprehensive partner.

In the US, there was a time when the Vietnamese Embassy celebrated the 20th anniversary of the normalization of trade relations between Vietnam and the US (1994-2014) right at the large meeting room of the US Senate.

After the flag-raising ceremony and the singing of the national anthems of the two countries, Senator John McCain (1936-2018) said that he could not imagine a day seeing the flag of Vietnam in the headquarters of the US Senate like that day. “If you live long enough, like me, you can see the impossible become possible," he said.

Although there have been "spectacular" developments as mentioned, there are still shortcomings between the two countries.

Our two countries still discuss political differences, such as democracy and human rights, but also economy, trade, investment, finance, and international and regional issues. Doubts and barriers about society, especially about dealing with war consequences, are still there.

That is the fact that both sides still have to make more efforts to overcome, towards a better future, to achieve a "new landing."

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