WashingtonD.C. (VNA) – Outgoing Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh hasbid farewell to local officials and friends before returning home andconcluding his mission in the US in late June 2018.

AmbassadorVinh last week made a visit to US Secretary of Defence James Mattis who affirmedthat the US always attaches importance to strengthening comprehensivepartnership with Vietnam in all fields, including security-defence.

Earlier,Vinh met with former US Secretary of State John Kerry in Massachusetts State.He thanked Kerry for being a friend of Vietnam who has exerted great efforts tostrengthen the Vietnam-US relations.

AmbassadorVinh also had meetings with some US officials, including special Assistance to thePresident on Asia Matt Pottinger and Senator Jim Webb.

On May 21,Ambassador Vinh hosted a reception at the Vietnamese Embassy in the US to bidfarewell to officials from the US administration and parliament as well asbusinesspersons, scholars and friends, including Acting Assistant Secretary ofState Susan Thornton.

The USsides highly valued the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership’s growth over thepast years in all areas from politics, diplomacy and security to economics,science-technology, education, and people-to-people exchange, as well as inregional and international issues of shared concern and the strengthening ofcooperation between ASEAN and the US.

Thorntonthanked Ambassador Vinh for coordinating with the US side, building trust and awide network of friends, as well as consulting and seeking measures to promote bilateralcooperation, thus contributing to bolstering the Vietnam-US ties as well as theASEAN-US partnership.

At the meetings,Ambassador Vinh thanked the US side for supporting him and the VietnameseEmbassy in fulfilling missions, contributing to strengthening bilateralrelations in all areas.

AmbassadorVinh assumed his post as Vietnamese Ambassador to the US from late November,2014. Over the past three years, the Vietnam-US relationship saw progress with numeroushigh-level visits, including the visit to the US by General Secretary of theCommunist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong in July 2015, the US visit by PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in May 2017, and the Vietnam visits by PresidentDonald Trump in November 2017 and President Barack Obama in May 2016.

The USlifted the ban on the sale of lethal weapon to Vietnam in May 2016 andtransferred the US Hamilton-class coast guard cutter to Vietnam in March 2017,while the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson visited Da Nang port for the firsttime in March 2018. Fullbright University in Vietnam was launched inVietnam.-VNA