Sharing with The World and Vietnam Report, the mouthpiece of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Nguyen Quoc Dung highlighted the importance and significance of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to the United States, including many multilateral and bilateral activities.

At the invitation of President of the United States of America Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., PM Pham Minh Chinh will join the leaders of ASEAN countries to attend the Special Summit to celebrate the 45th anniversary of ASEAN-US relations on May 12-13 in Washington DC.

On this occasion, PM Pham Minh Chinh will lead a Vietnamese delegation to visit the United States and the United Nations from May 11-17.

Ahead of the visit, Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Dung shared with media the highlights and preparations for this important visit.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Dung. (Photo: Vietnamese Embassy in the US)

Can Ambassador share the purpose and significance of PM Pham Minh Chinh's visit to the US to attend the upcoming ASEAN-US Summit, especially in the context of celebrating the 45^th anniversary of the ASEAN-US relations?

This visit of PM Pham Minh Chinh plays an important role, including multilateral and bilateral activities.

The “2 in 1” visit aims to implement Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralization, diversification and intensive international integration.

In current context, all external activities that Vietnam deploys aim at creating and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, mobilizing external resources for development, and enhancing position of the country.

Through this visit, Vietnam once again affirms the commitment to actively and responsibly contribute to ASEAN's processes, including promoting ASEAN-US relations.

For the Vietnam – US bilateral relationship, its significance is marked by the fact that this is the first working visit of the PM Pham Minh Chinh. This is an opportunity for the two countries to have high-level exchanges and interactions, thereby further enhancing mutual understanding and setting out major directions for the relationship in the coming time.

After two years of limited delegation exchanges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this visit creates the momentum for relations, further promoting the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership.

In economic and trade cooperation, the visit extends a very good opportunity for the two countries to promote essential areas of cooperation, in accordance with the demands and capabilities of each side, especially in the context of economic recovery and dealing with consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

So what are the priorities of this working visit?

Besides attending activities within the framework of the ASEAN-US Special Summit, PM Pham Minh Chinh will have a tight schedule of bilateral activities, meeting with senior officials in the Government, the Congress, friends, scholars, and leading US businesses and corporations, as well as overseas Vietnamese in the US.

Especially, PM Chinh will deliver an important speech on Vietnam’s policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). To my knowledge, PM Chinh is the only leader of ASEAN who will give a speech at this prestigious forum on this occasion.

During the visit, PM Pham Minh Chinh will meet high-ranking UN officials and discuss cooperation between Vietnam and UN agencies.

After 27 years of normalization, the Vietnam-US relationship has now developed extensively in many fields of cooperation, from politics - diplomacy, overcoming the consequences of war, economy - trade to responding to climate change, infrastructure, energy transition, health care, digital transformation, hi-tech agriculture, smart city, supply chain diversification, market opening for Vietnamese goods, etc.

I believe that the PM and his American partners will have substantive and effective exchanges and discussions, set out clear cooperation orientations, and promote stronger development of the two countries' relations as well as cooperation in handling regional and international issues.

PM Pham Minh Chinh meets US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the COP26 conference in Glasgow (UK) in November 2021. (Photo: VNA)

How has the Vietnamese Embassy prepared for PM Pham Minh Chinh's first visit to the US? What are your expectations for this visit?

It can be said that the preparation for the visit is quite urgent due to the large amount of work in less time. However, thanks to the close coordination with domestic agencies and the co-operation with the local authorities of the US and coordination with ASEAN countries, the preparation are very effective.

All staff of the Embassy and our representative agencies in the US are working with the highest efforts and determination. Everyone works with the top goal of ensuring the success of this special visit.

The arrangements for meetings with US businesses faced some difficulties due to the busy schedule of the PM, while many US business partners want to meet the PM and other officials in the delegatin. This fact reflects the great interest that American businesses have for Vietnam.

On this occasion, businesses of the two countries will meet and get to know each other better, thereby opening up new cooperation opportunities in a more sustainable direction.

I also hope that, during PM’s visit, businesses partners will sign contracts worth billions of dollars, bringing practical benefits to the two nations.

ASEAN-US cooperation, especially economic cooperation, is receiving high expectations in the post-Covid-19 period. So what do you think are the advantages and challenges that ASEAN and the US face in the current context?

The US is one of ASEAN's most important dialogue partners. After 45 years of establishing relations, and especially since 2015 when the two sides upgraded their relationship to a Strategic Partnership, the ASEAN-US partnership is built on a foundation of long-term and diverse cooperation framework, spanning in many fields, from politics, security, economy, culture, people-to-people exchanges to responding to global issues.

With a market of 662 million people and being the fifth largest economy in the world, ASEAN is currently the largest US investment destination in the region. US investment in ASEAN reached US$388 billion, larger than US investment in China, Korea, India and Japan combined.

The 9th ASEAN-US Summit will be held online on October 26, 2021. (Photo: TG&VN)

Meanwhile, the US is ASEAN's second largest trading partner. ASEAN has established and led a series of forums and cooperation frameworks in the region such as EAS, ARF, ADMM+, EAMF, etc., attracting the participation of partners, especially major countries, in which the US always actively participate.

It can be said that ASEAN is very important to the US and vice versa. Therefore, it can be seen that this relationship will continue to grow strongly, towards common goals and common interests, and play an important role in building a peaceful, developed and prosperous Asia-Pacific region.

However, the relationship also faces several challenges. It is observed that the world and the region are experiencing very rapid and complicated changes, and strategic frictions between major powers are becoming increasingly fierce, especially the US-China competition.

These movements in international relations have negative impacts on ASEAN, which always seeks a harmonious relationship with all countries, especially the great powers, and does not want to lean on any side within the strategic competition.

Besides, there are also unexpected fluctuations within ASEAN, making it difficult for unity within ASEAN as well as meeting the expectations of external partners such as the US.

Despite those challenges, I believe that both sides see the great benefit of cooperation and share the desire and interest in maintaining peace, stability, and prosperity, respecting international law in the region. These factors will help the relationship between the two sides to be increasingly consolidated and developed.

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