US President Donald Trump has exclaimed that Vietnam is “an amazing place” when he was back from Hanoi – the place that hosted the recently concluded between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

US President Donald Trump and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a meeting in Hanoi on February 28. Photo: VPG

The US president has personally and through media repeatedly talked about land and people of Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular during the summit which took place on February 27 and 28. 

Earlier in route to Washington from the summit, Trump thanked Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and the people of Vietnam for welcoming him and hosting the event. He called them “generous” and “wonderful”. 

Trump landed in Hanoi on Tuesday evening (9:00 pm), at the time setting foot on the ground, he was greeted by Vietnamese senior officials, reporters, and locals who queued along road heading to Hanoi and around the hotel he would stay. 

On February 27, the US president met Vietnam’s President Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, discussing measures to enhance the comprehensive partnership which covers cooperation in regional and international issues, and bilateral ties that embrace defense-security, trade, investment, and education. 

President Trump thanked Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc for various deals made between US companies and Vietnam’s. In the meeting, Phuc expressed interest in US military equipment.

The two sides agreed to boost the implementation of the bilateral trade agreements and Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and to upgrade the trade and investment status to suitable with the current situation. 

At the press conference held on February 28 after the summit ended, Trump said that “I want to begin by thanking the Prime Minister and President of Vietnam. We’re in Hanoi. It’s an incredible city. What’s happened over the last 25 years has been incredible for the people of Vietnam, the job they’ve done -- economic development. Really something special. So I want to thank all of the people of Vietnam for having treated us so well.”

Hanoi people wave flags greeting US President Donald Trump at the hotel when he headed from the airport. Photo: VOV

This has been President Trump’s second visit to Vietnam. The first took place in November 2017 when he attended the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Week on November 6-11 and paid a state visit to Hanoi on November 11, marking his first visit to a Southeast Asian country since his inauguration on January 21, 2017. 

In the remarks at APEC CEO Summit, Trump said that “in the early 1990s, nearly half of Vietnam survived on just a few dollars a day, and one in four did not have any electricity.  Today, an opening Vietnamese economy is one of the fastest-growing economies on earth.  It has already increased more than 30 times over, and the Vietnamese students rank among the best students in the world. And that is very impressive.”

Hanoitimes