Hanoi, Vietnam - US President Joe Biden hailed closer ties with Vietnam on Sunday as the two countries struck a
Hanoi, Vietnam – US President Joe Biden hailed closer ties with Vietnam on Sunday as the two countries struck a deal to deepen cooperation, including on semiconductors, but said he was not aiming to contain China.
Biden flew in to Hanoi straight from a G20 summit that failed to agree to a phase-out of fossil fuels and highlighted deep divisions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is also a section on rare earth minerals, which used in the manufacture of high-tech devices such as smartphones and electric car batteries.
“This can be the beginning of even a greater era of cooperation,” Biden said as he met Nguyen Phu Trong, the head of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party and the country’s paramount leader.The deal puts the United States on a par with China — as well as Russia, India and South Korea — at the top level of the Vietnamese hierarchy of diplomatic relations.
However, The New York Times reported just ahead of Biden’s visit that Vietnam was secretly arranging to buy arms from Russia in contravention of US sanctions.