Hanoi (VNA) – The official visit from May 29-31 willbe the first trip to the US by Nguyen Xuan Phuc as Prime Minister of Vietnamand also the first time a Vietnamese senior leader will meet with US PresidentDonald Trump since the countries had new leaders.

The visit aims to continue carrying out Vietnam’s foreignpolicy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisationof foreign relations, and proactive and active integration into the world. Itis also set to bring into play the attained outcomes and foster Vietnam-UScooperation

Vietnam and the US established diplomatic tieson July 12, 1995. A Consulate General of the US was opened in Ho Chi Minh andanother of Vietnam was set up in San Francisco in November 1997.

Positive strides have been recorded in bilateralrelations in all spheres since the countries established a comprehensivepartnership in July 2013 on the basis of respecting each other’s territorialintegrity, political regime and development path, for the sake of their owninterests and for regional peace, stability and development cooperation.

Delegation exchanges have been increased inrecent years. Vietnamese leaders visiting the US included Party GeneralSecretary Nguyen Phu Trong (July 2015), National Assembly Chairman Nguyen SinhHung (September 2015). President Truong Tan Sang attended the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, and PrimeMinister Nguyen Tan Dung attended the special ASEAN-US Summit in February 2016. There have also been many US delegationstouring Vietnam such as the trips by President Barack Obama (May 2016),Secretary of State John Kerry (January 2017), and Secretary of Defence AshtonCarter (June 2015).

Over the past years, the US has become one ofthe leading trade partners of Vietnam. Bilateral trade has continually grown byabout 20 percent each year. Despite a trade deficit with Vietnam, the US hasenjoyed a rapid export growth rate of 77 percent annually, four times higherthan the growth of Vietnam’s shipments to the US.

With 815 projects with total registered capitalof 10.07 billion USD, the US ranks eighth among 112 countries and territoriesdirectly investing in the Southeast Asian nation. On March 27-28, 2017, the twocountries restarted the technical meeting of the Council on Bilateral Trade andInvestment Framework Agreement.

Both sides have also intensified cooperation insecurity, defence, science, technique, information technology, bio-technology,oceanography, and space technology.

During a Vietnam visit by President Barack Obamain May last year, the two sides issued the joint announcements on partnership inclimate change and wildlife trafficking combat. Accordingly, the US willsupport Vietnam with 60 million USD to cope with climate change and another 10million USD to fight wildlife trafficking in five years.

Regarding education, there are more than 31,000Vietnamese students and apprentices in the US at present, turning Vietnam intothe sixth biggest source of foreign students in the US. The FulbirghtUniversity Vietnam has been actively implemented while first moves have beenmade to carry out the Peace Corps programme, which allows US volunteers toteach English in Hanoi and HCM City.

The number of US tourists to Vietnam reached552,700 in 2016, a year-on-year rise of 12.8 percent.

Bilateral coordination has been enhanced at manymultilateral organisations and forums to which both countries are members suchas the UN, ASEAN, East Asia Summit, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC),and ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus.

The two countries have also worked together inglobal issues such as climate change response, food security, energy and waterresources, trans-national crime and terrorism fight, and prevention of weaponsof mass destruction proliferation.

They have maintained annual dialogues on humanrights with straightforward and constructive spirit, not letting differenceshamper the development of their relations.-VNA