The United States will provide Vietnam with an additional one million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Vice President Kamala Harris announced during her meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi on Wednesday.
The donated jabs would begin to arrive within the next 24 hours, AP News reported.
The U.S. previously donated more than five million shots of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to the Southeast Asian country via the COVAX Facility.
Vice President Harris had also joined talks with Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vice State President Vo Thi Anh Xuan earlier the same day.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh gestures while talking with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the Government Office in Hanoi, August 25, 2021. Photo: Vietnam Government Portal |
During her meeting with State President Phuc, Harris said she was honored to be the first U.S. vice president to pay an official visit to Vietnam.
She thanked the Vietnamese leaders and people for their warm and thoughtful welcome.
The U.S. supports a strong, independent, and prosperous Vietnam, the vice president stated, adding that the Southeast Asian country will continue to expand international integration and assume an increasingly important role in the ASEAN bloc and the region.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, August 25, 2021. Photo: Reuters |
Vice President Harris, along with a delegation of U.S. officials, is scheduled to join the Vietnamese government on Wednesday to launch the Southeast Asia regional office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Hanoi.
She will also attend a virtual meeting with officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Papua New Guinea to discuss COVID-19 response measures and ways to strengthen global health security.
The official visit of the U.S. vice president is set to run until Thursday.
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