Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh presented the State President’s Friendship Order to Virginia Foote, Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, in Washington DC on June 23.

Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh presented the State President’s Friendship Order to Virginia Foote, Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam.

The noble award was in recognition of Foote's active contributions to the normalisation and development of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the US in the past three decades.

Co-founded the US-Viet Nam Trade Council in 1989, Virginia Foote was at the forefront at the council’s efforts to persuade the US Government and Congress to remove the trade embargo against Vietnam and move towards the normalisation and development of bilateral relations.

She was presented with a friendship medal by the Vietnamese State in 2007 for her support for the signing of the bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the agreement on Vietnam’s WTO accession and the US Government’s application of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Vietnam.

Expressing thanks for the recognition of the Vietnamese State, Foote said that the relationship between the US and Vietnam has ceaselessly developed with major milestones including the official visit of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the US in 2015 and the Vietnam visit of US President Barack Obama to last month.

VNA