Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Ministerand Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh received former US Secretary of State JohnKerry in Hanoi on January 16.

Minh expressed his delight that his meeting withKerry, who is in Vietnam to attend the Vietnam Economic Forum 2019, coincidedwith the 25th anniversary of the normalisation of Vietnam-US trade relations.

He highly valued his guest’s decades-longefforts and contributions to the promotion of the bilateral ties while servingas US Secretary of State and as a senator. He also welcomed Kerry’s continuedattention to Vietnam.

Briefing his guest on the recent developments inthe Vietnam-US relationship and plans to advance the two countries’ connectionsin the coming time, Minh applauded the recent progress in bilateral cooperationin education, environmental protection, and water resources development, inparticular the projects of the Fulbright University Vietnam and the LowerMekong Initiative.

The Deputy PM asked Kerry to continue supportingdevelopment cooperation, including in economy-trade-investment, education,science-technology, the settlement of the impact from the war, and climatechange response.

For his part, Kerry voiced his satisfaction atthe substantive development of the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership,pledging that in whatever positions he holds, he will make non-stop efforts tohelp enhance the two countries’ relations.

He thanked the Vietnamese Government and ForeignMinistry for supporting educational cooperation projects, including theFulbright University Vietnam, expressing his belief that these projects willcontribute to Vietnam’s development and bilateral relations in the future.

The former US Secretary of State also emphasisedthe importance of clean and renewable energy to the sustainable socio-economicdevelopment of both countries. He said he is ready to continue assistingVietnam in renewable energy development and the attraction of externalresources to this sector.

He added that he will share Vietnam’s interestswith the US side and support cooperation activities to the benefit of bothnations.

The same day, head of the Party CentralCommittee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh, who is also a Politburo memberand Secretary of the Committee, had a meeting with Kerry.

For the Vietnam Economic Forum 2019, the USguest proposed stronger cooperation in the energy sector between the twocountries and suggested setting up a joint venture to help Vietnam withbuilding up its energy infrastructure. He promised continued efforts to makethis idea come true, thus contributing to local sustainable development.

Meanwhile, Binh affirmed that Vietnam will presson with developing renewable energy and will continue to welcome US investmentin this field. –VNA