Deputy Foreign Minister invites Mr. Trump to visit Vietnam

Washington affirms its importance to the Asia-Pacific region in its overall foreign policy strategy and supports ASEAN's stance on the East Sea.

From March 20 to 23, during his working visit to the US, Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc met with Acting Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon; Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Asia, National Security Council Matthew Pottinger; Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Region Susan Thornton; Special Assistant to the President for International Trade, National Security Council Andrew Quinn; Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense David Helvey; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Diane Farrell; a group of Assistants to the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee and a number of scholars to discuss Vietnam-US relations, regional and international situations of mutual concern.

During the meetings, Mr. Ha Kim Ngoc also conveyed the invitation of Vietnam's senior leaders to President Donald Trump, saying that the two sides need to maintain the development momentum of economic and trade relations - the focus and driving force of the bilateral relationship, strengthen cooperation in education - training, science - technology, security - defense, overcoming the consequences of war, humanitarian issues...

The US side affirmed its importance to the Comprehensive Partnership with Vietnam, highly appreciated Vietnam's role as APEC Chair in 2017 and affirmed that it would work closely with Vietnam for the success of the 2017 APEC Summit; agreed that the two sides should increase delegation exchanges at all levels to promote areas of cooperation with great potential between the two sides, including the TIFA mechanism (Trade and Investment Framework Agreement between Vietnam and the US).

The two sides also discussed a number of regional and global developments of mutual concern, including terrorism, non-traditional security challenges, the situation in the East Sea, and the East China Sea. Washington affirmed its emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region in its overall foreign policy strategy; affirmed its support for the role of ASEAN and ASEAN-led mechanisms; supported ASEAN's stance on the East Sea, as well as committed to implementing a number of steps to strengthen bilateral relations with a number of Southeast Asian countries in the coming time.

According to Kinhtedothi.net.vn