WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Vietnam on Sept. 10 and meet with top officials to discuss a range of issues from technology and the economy to regional stability and climate change, the White House said on Monday.
Biden will meet with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other key leaders in Hanoi before traveling to Alaska to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, it added.
While in Hanoi, Biden and Vietnamese officials will discuss deepening the two countries’ ties as well as boosting “a technology-focused and innovation-driven Vietnamese economy,” the White House said in a statement after Biden earlier this month announced plans for the trip.
The two once-warring countries are weighing their ties as an increasingly assertive China is looming large. While Washington is eager to upgrade relations, Vietnam must also weigh any reaction by its powerful neighbor.
Washington considers Hanoi one of its top partners in the region, especially as the memory of Vietnam War era increasingly fades. Biden and Trong spoke by phone in March, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the southeast Asian nation one month later.
Trong, Vietnam’s most powerful figure, last year became the first foreign leader to meet President Xi Jinping in Beijing after the Chinese leader secured a precedent-breaking third term.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Sandra Maler)
