The US president arrived at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport around noon (Hanoi time) on Sunday, speaking with US embassy staff before boarding Air Force One to fly to Vietnam .
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President Joe Biden at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, before traveling to Hanoi, September 10, 2023. Photo by Reuters |
He is expected to arrive at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi in the afternoon, to begin his two-day visit.
The visit will be Biden’s first since taking office in early 2021. It comes as Vietnam and the United States celebrate 10 years of comprehensive partnership.
His entourage includes Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs and of the Pacific Daniel Kritenbrink.
During the visit, President Biden will meet Party leader Trong and other senior Vietnamese officials, Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Nguyen Quoc Dung said, adding that the two countries will review their comprehensive partnership and define a vision of relationships for the future.
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President Joe Biden in a photo released by the White House in 2021. |
Biden’s visit was hailed by U.S. and Vietnamese diplomats as a high point in bilateral relations.
Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc called the event “very special,” during which a US president will visit Vietnam for the first time at the invitation of the head of that country’s Communist Party.
Ngoc said the visit shows the two sides’ mutual respect for each other’s foreign policies and policies regarding the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.
“This visit shows that the United States respects the Vietnamese political system and highly values the role of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Vietnamese leaders.”
US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper said the visit was “historic” and would be an important step in good relations between the two leaders, who “got along well” during their first meeting in Washington in 2015 .
During his visit to Vietnam in November 2000, former US President Bill Clinton was the first US president to visit Vietnam after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. His successors George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all visited Vietnam during their presidency.
President Biden will be the second US president to visit Vietnam during his first presidential term since 1995, following Trump.
Ambassador Dung said Biden’s visit “will open a new chapter in Vietnam-US relations, creating more favorable objective conditions for Vietnam to determine a higher position in regional and global value chains.”
Economic cooperation is at the center of relations between the two countries.
Bilateral trade turnover reached over $123.86 billion in 2022, an increase of 11 percent from 2021. The United States is Vietnam’s largest export market and its second-largest partner commercial. Vietnam is the seventh largest trading partner of the United States
U.S. foreign direct investment in Vietnam reached more than $11 billion, representing more than 1,200 projects, ranking it 11th among all countries and territories directly investing in Vietnam.
Countries have also strengthened their collaborations in the field of education.
There are approximately 25,000 Vietnamese students studying in the United States, contributing $1 billion to the country’s economy.
