The US President is expected to pay an official visit to Vietnam on September 10-11 at the invitation of the Vietnamese Party Committee’s Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong.

The highlights of the US President's visit include promoting growth focused on technology and innovation, expanding ties between two countries through educational exchanges and human resources development programs, combating climate change, and promoting peace, prosperity and stability in the region.

Replying to VietNamNet, Harvard University’s Public Policy Professor Thomas Patterson said that Biden's visit would focus on economic issues and climate change. Economic issues will be the top priority.

The US is seeking to strengthen economic connectivity with Vietnam. Studies and history show that close economic ties tend to bind countries together in other ways. The strengthening of economic ties aims to serve the national interest of both countries.

Patterson, who is the co-founder of the Boston Global Forum, said that a greater approach to the innovation and technology centers of the US will bring big benefits to Vietnam through Biden’s visit.

The strong points of Vietnam is that the Vietnamese people are diligent and have good character. Particularly, they have entrepreneurial spirit. Vietnam is a market where salaries are low compared with the US, which is attractive to American businesses. The combination of the strength of the two countries can bring great benefits to Vietnam’s economic development.

Patterson stressed that the sufficient condition for the two countries’ cooperation is the Vietnamese government’s policies. The changes in Vietnam’s business policies will facilitate a deeper cooperation between the two countries in technology and renovation.

Prof Alex Sandy Pentland from MIT affirmed that the US has abundant intellectual resources in the fields of AI and data, while Vietnam has a fast growing digital economy and human resources with engineers and data scientists. 

Pentland, honored by Forbes as one of the seven best data scientists in the world, and a member of the Leadership Council of the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation, and the Boston Global Forum, believes that the best way for Vietnam is to let young Vietnamese engineers to work at modern labs like MIT’s. This will not only allow them to have the best practical methods, but also learn about what other countries are doing.

The most successful path is for young Vietnamese engineers to spend time working in cutting-edge research labs like MIT. That way, they can not only learn best practices, but also learn what many other countries are doing, and build relationships with engineers in those countries. 

Party Secretary General’s phone call

Biden's upcoming visit to Vietnam marks an important milestone in the relationship between Vietnam and the US, and commemorates the 10th anniversary of the two countries establishing a comprehensive partnership (July 25, 2013 - July 25, 2023). 

On July 25, 2013, the then Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and American President Obama agreed on upgrading the bilateral relationship to comprehensive partnership. 

The agreement names the spheres of cooperation, including politics and diplomacy, trade and economic relations, science and technology, education and training, environment and healthcare, issues on war legacy, national defence and security, protection and promotion of human rights, culture, sports, and tourism. 

The two leaders emphasized the principles of the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership, including respect for the United Nations Charter, international law, and respect for each other’s political regime, independence and sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

In a high-ranking phone call on March 29, 2023, Vietnamese Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong and American President Joe Biden praised the active and comprehensive partnership of the two countries and agreed on upgrading and expanding bilateral relations.

Biden said that Vietnam is an important partner, and that he supports an "independent, self-reliant and prosperous Vietnam”, while reaffirming respect for independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political regime, and agreeing that respect is the foundation of the two countries' relationship.

Prof Carl Thayer from Australia, a scholar with deep understanding about Vietnam, commented that Biden’s administration aims to lay down the foundation for the comprehensive partnership.

US Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin paid official visits to Vietnam to discuss on enhancing bilateral capacity of the strategic partnership.

Following a phone call, three members of the US cabinet went to Vietnam for detailed negotiations, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

Thayer commented that the visits to Vietnam by Obama and Biden demonstrate the continuation of the US policy on assisting Vietnam in implementing legal and economic reforms necessary to integrate more deeply into the global economy.

Since normalization of relations of the two countries in 1995, two-way trade turnover has soared by 300 times, from $450 million in 1995 to $140 billion in 2022.

Lan Anh