Party delegation visits US to reinforce bilateral relations

Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations Hoang Binh Quan - Photo: VNA

The delegation had working sessions with representatives of left-wing parties in the US, leaders of the Communist Party USA, Ben Cardin – Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Ted Yoho – Chairman of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee at the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, along with officials of the State Department and the US National Security Council. They also met with a number of scholars in order to discuss Vietnam-US relations and regional and global situations.

At the events, the delegation affirmed the Vietnamese Party and State’s consistent policy of treasuring their friendship and comprehensive cooperation with the US, and their wishes to enhance their trust in order to boost the stable, substantive and sustainable development of bilateral relations, thus benefiting the two countries’ people and contributing to regional and global peace, stability and cooperation.

The two sides also discussed measures to foster the bilateral ties, especially increasing meetings at all levels, including between parties. They also welcomed US President Donald Trump’s attendance at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam this November.

They agreed to promote the existing cooperation mechanisms, step up economic-trade-investment cooperation to turn it into a foundation and momentum for bilateral ties, and bolster defence-security cooperation. Vietnam and the US will continue prioritising the settlement of the consequences of war and humanitarian aid cooperation.

More extensive and substantive cooperation will be fostered at regional and multilateral mechanisms and forums, such as the APEC, ASEAN and the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Vietnam and the US will also link up with each other in the Southeast Asian and North American regions.

The visiting delegation also asked the US to promptly recognise Vietnam as a market economy, be more open to importing agricultural products of Vietnam, and reduce trade barriers.

Meanwhile, the officials of the US administration, congress and left-wing parties expressed their delight at the progress in Vietnam-US relations. They agreed on the measures put forward to augment the bilateral ties, noting that they want to strengthen their comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam and are ready to work with the country to successfully organise the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting later this year.

They highly valued the stature and role of both Vietnam and ASEAN and consider the Southeast Asian nation as an important partner in the region. They affirmed that the US will make great efforts to tighten the relations and implement their agreements with Vietnam.

The US side also emphasised cooperation priorities in terms of economy, trade, education-training, science and technology, defence, and war consequences settlement. They pledged to make efforts to boost bilateral and multilateral trade cooperation in suitable new frameworks.