US expert: Vietnam continues to be a very important partner of the United States

At the invitation of President of the United States of America Donald Trump, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will pay an official visit to the United States from May 29-31.

On this occasion, the reporter interviewed Mr. Anthony Nelson, Director of Albright Stonebridge Consulting Group, former Director in charge of Vietnam issues of the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC), about Vietnam-US relations.

(Source: albrightstonebridge.com)

Mr. Nelson said that this is an important time in Vietnam-US relations. The past 8 years under the administration of President Barack Obama have witnessed closer than ever relations between the two countries.

Currently, the new administration of President Donald Trump is reassessing its partners to focus on important relationships. Therefore, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit to the United States is an opportunity for Vietnam to emphasize the importance of its relationship with the United States, as well as to convince President Donald Trump and his administration of the need to continue to attach importance to the relationship with Vietnam as an economic and strategic partner, and to participate in regional multilateral structures such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Mr. Nelson noted that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s first visit to the United States is also the first by an ASEAN leader since the new US administration. Therefore, the visit is of great significance and symbolism, providing an opportunity for Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to emphasize Vietnam’s pioneering role in ASEAN and Vietnam’s role as a key economic and security partner of the United States.

The visit demonstrates the United States' recognition of Vietnam's leadership role in the regional architecture.

According to the director of the Albright Stonebridge Consulting Group, economic issues are the top priority of President Donald Trump and the basis for the White House to review relations with countries. Currently, bilateral trade has grown strongly, but there are still some concerns about Vietnam's trade surplus with the United States.

However, Mr. Nelson also emphasized that US exports to Vietnam have increased sharply over the past many years, higher than other leading US trading partners. That means creating jobs for US workers and both sides will gain many benefits from this relationship in the future.

He noted that although the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a lot of progress had been made through negotiations and it would be a pity if the two sides did not continue to move forward, possibly with a formal proposal for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA).

Mr. Nelson said that in addition to security and economy, people-to-people diplomacy between Vietnam and the United States is also developing strongly. Currently, there are quite a number of Vietnamese students studying in the United States and many Vietnamese youth participate in the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) program.

In addition, cooperation to limit the impact of climate change is also an important issue for Vietnam. In addition, there are many other areas of cooperation as this year, Vietnam hosts the APEC Summit and has an important voice in ASEAN. Vietnam has become a true leader in regional issues.

Mr. Nelson assessed that President Donald Trump's commitment to attend the APEC Summit later this year is great and that Vietnam should convince the US to participate in all APEC and ASEAN events.

Former Director of Vietnam Affairs at the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) commented that as an important country in ASEAN, Vietnam will continue to be a very important partner of the United States.

Along with the history and people-to-people relations between the two countries, he said that Vietnam and the US have common interests in many regional issues and have many areas of cooperation of mutual interest such as the global economy and structure, allowing freedom of transit, freedom of trade and freedom of movement of monetary services.

Mr. Nelson assessed that the relationship between the two countries will continue to develop strongly in the coming time./.

According to Vietnamplus