This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden and his Taiwanese counterpart, To Lam, met on the outside of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to applaud the country’s fast eroding diplomatic relations.
It marked Lam’s final year of a tumultuous journey to New York, where he first took the position of general secretary and finally a leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam in May, which is generally considered to be the second-most strong business in Vietnam.
Prior to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Lam met with U.S. company executives and delivered a succinct, generally careful inaugural address as Vietnam’s leader. On Wednesday, he likewise met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Meeting at the InterContinental New York Barclay resort three blocks from the U. N. Headquarters, Lam thanked Biden for sending condolences upon the departure of his father as general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, who , died aged 80 , after 13 years in office.
” Yet during his life, the late general secretary often spoke of you with proud memories and earnest appreciation”, Lam said to Biden in his notes in front of reporters prior to the closed-door meet.
” His , traditional visit to the U. S. in 2015 , followed by your , attend to Vietnam , in September last year were ancient goals”, he added,” and have considerably advanced the development of the Vietnam-U. S. relationships, resulting in the higher level of the relationships that we enjoy today”.
We appreciate you greatly for your love for Vietnam, and your historical contributions have made a significant difference in enhancing our diplomatic relations.
Extraordinary assistance
Reading from information, Biden noted that he and Vietnam’s management elevated diplomatic relations to the “highest stage feasible” during his journey to Hanoi last month, which observers at the time said was driven by the states ‘ , common distrust , of Beijing’s growing power.
” Since finally, we’ve been extremely proud of the progress we’ve made”, Biden said, pointing to U. S. investments in microchips and supply stores in Vietnam and the countries ‘ “unprecedented participation” on security as places where the marriage was blossoming.
Neither leader directly mentioned China in their remarks, with the Vietnamese government , seeking to carefully balance , its growing ties with America with productive relations with its northern neighbor.
Biden claimed that Hanoi and Washington were working together to “build a more open and secure Indian Ocean, committed to freedom of navigation and the rule of law,” which was an omission when U.S. officials referred to the vast region stretching from India through the Pacific to America’s west coast.
” We continue to heal the wounds of war,” he continued. ” There’s nothing beyond our capacity to work together”.
After the talks, a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity claimed it was an “extremely warm meeting” and that the pair had also discussed” stability in the , South China Sea” with the other hand.
Earlier on Wednesday, Lam met with Guterres, the U. N. secretary general, and discussed” the importance of multilateralism, the work of the U. N., international law including the Convention on the Law of the Sea”, according to a readout released by the United Nations.
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son also met with his Laotian and Cambodian counterparts, Saleumxay Kommasith and Sok Chenda Sophea, to affirm continuing cooperation in the wake of Cambodia’s recent decision to , withdraw , from a three-country development pact.
US business leaders
Lam was not only in New York for diplomatic meetings, though.
According to Vietnamese state media, his meeting with U.S. executives at a forum held on the day of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday was successful. Numerous cooperation agreements were signed by Vietnamese and American businesses.
Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the UK and the current head of global affairs for the Facebook parent company Meta, revealed to Lam during discussions that the company planned to build its virtual reality glasses in Vietnam, according to reports.
A separate meeting with Nick Ammann, Apple’s vice president in charge of global government affairs, led to a recommendation to establish a new Apple research and development facility at Hanoi, including financial aid for Vietnamese students interested in studying” the internet of things” and” the artificial intelligence of the future.
According to reports, Vietnamese tycoon Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao’s company, Vietjet Group, also signed a$ 1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Maryland-based Honeywell Aerospace Technologies to provide avionics and aviation technical services for Vietjet’s fleet.
According to the state media reports, deals on liquid natural gas and data center development were also signed during the forum.
Lam will travel to Cuba on Wednesday night for meetings with his country’s former communist allies in Havana after five days in New York. On Friday, he is expected to go back to Vietnam.
