The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday endorsed a Vietnam-U.S. agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation, in the context that Washington is seeking ways to expand ties with Hanoi.

>> Vietnam to pass feasibility study on nuclear plant in Q1 2015: official The deal was signed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Brunei in October 2013. President Barack Obama later approved the document in February 2014. This deal, which is also called the 123 Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, allows U.S. companies to enter Vietnam’s expanding nuclear power market, possibly earning them $10-20 billion, and creating 50,000 well-paid jobs for American workers, according to an assessment from the U.S. Department of Commerce.   The country’s nuclear power market is estimated to rank second in Southeast Asia, only after China, with a projected turnover of $50 billion in the next two decades, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Meanwhile, the agreement will help Vietnam ease its shortage of energy, toward meeting over 10 percent of the domestic power demand by 2030. Russia and Japan have earlier inked their nuclear cooperation pacts with Vietnam.

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