U.S. President-elect Donald Trump affirmed that Washington attaches great importance to ties with Vietnam, particularly in economic cooperation, during his phone talks with Vietnamese Party General Secretary To Lam on Monday.

As reported by the Central Commission for External Relations, Party General Secretary Lam congratulated the president-elect over the phone from Hanoi on winning the 47th presidential election and highly appreciated Trump's contributions to promoting relations between the two countries.

Trump expressed his pleasure speaking with Lam and extended his best regards to the Vietnamese people.

Both leaders then reviewed the achievements of the Vietnam-U.S. comprehensive strategic partnership in recent times.

Expressing his satisfaction with the fruitful development of the bilateral ties, President-elect Trump affirmed the importance he attaches to the U.S. relationship with Vietnam, particularly in economic areas. 

He emphasized some specific areas of economic and trade cooperation that the U.S. is interested in and wishes to promote.

He believed that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries will continue to thrive.

Trump expressed his admiration for the Vietnamese people, reminiscing about his experiences during his two prior visits to Vietnam.

He also praised the Vietnamese-American communities in the U.S. for their significant contributions.

Party chief Lam told the U.S. president-elect that Vietnam is ready to promote the steady and long-term development of the bilateral ties for the sake of the two nations, as well as for regional and global peace, cooperation, and sustainable development.

Lam exchanged ideas with Trump concerning major advancements for beefing up economic, trade, and investment cooperation.

The Party leader invited Trump to visit Vietnam again, and the president-elect accepted the invitation with pleasure.

In return, he looks forward to Lam visiting the U.S. at a convenient time.

In September this year, Lam, as the Party general secretary and state president of Vietnam, visited the U.S. to attend the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future and the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

During his trip, Lam had various meetings with leading U.S. officials and conducted many other important diplomatic activities.

President-elect Donald Trump has visited Vietnam twice.

Trump’s first visit to Vietnam took place in 2017 when he attended the APEC Leaders’ Week in Da Nang and later traveled to Hanoi.

His second visit, in 2019, centered on the U.S.-North Korea Summit in Hanoi.

Notably, Trump is the only U.S. president to have visited Vietnam in his first year in office since the two countries normalized relations.

Vietnam and the U.S. normalized their diplomatic relations in July 1995 and entered a comprehensive partnership in July 2013.

A decade later, on September 10, 2023, the two countries lifted their ties directly to a comprehensive strategic partnership skipping the strategic partnership level during President Joe Biden’s official visit to Vietnam.

The two nations look forward to celebrating the 30th anniversary of normalized relations in 2025.

Over the past several years, the U.S. has been Vietnam's largest export market and second-biggest trading partner, Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper reported.

According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office, trade between the U.S. and Vietnam approximated $110.7 billion in the first ten months of 2024, matching the total trade volume for all of 2023.

In the same time frame, Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. totaled $98.4 billion, marking a 24.2-percent jump over 2023, while imports from the U.S. reached $12.3 billion, up 12.7 percent year over year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!