Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son Before Their Meeting

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, good afternoon, everyone.  It’s a great pleasure to be able to welcome the foreign minister here to the State Department, to Washington.  This has been a very, very significant time in the relations between the United States and Vietnam.  We – during President Biden’s visit we signed our comprehensive strategic partnership, and this is the first ministerial meeting since signing that partnership.

But in the time since President Biden’s visit, we have moved forward together – moved forward together in strengthening and deepening our collaboration in critical areas, everything from semiconductors to supply chains to educational and technological exchanges, people-to-people contacts, and of course our ongoing commitment to war legacies.  So I think this is a demonstration of not only our commitment to the Indo-Pacific but our commitment to the central role that Vietnam and the relationship between our countries plays in the Indo-Pacific.

I’m very much looking forward to today to continue the good work between us.  Next year we’ll be celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations, but meanwhile, we’re using the time to really build out what our leaders put in place, which is a strategic partnership that is increasingly comprehensive, and I welcome that.  So we welcome – it’s so good to have you here.

FOREIGN MINISTER SON:  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.  I’m very pleased to be with you today here again for the first annual dialogue between the two foreign ministers after the – we upgraded our relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership.  Especially it provides me with very warm and sunny weather.  (Laughter.)  I’m very happy to see that, and it’s really bright.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam very much appreciates your personal role and contribution to the strengthening of Vietnam-U.S. relations, especially recent elaboration of our bilateral ties.  Ambassador Marc Knapper and the team of U.S. Embassy Hanoi are also excellent partners (inaudible) in this process.  Again, we agree with you that since we have upgraded our relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership, we continue to strengthen and move our relationship forward.

For this year, we celebrated 30 years of the lifting of U.S. embargo against Vietnam.  Next year would be the 30th of our bilateral relations, of normalization of relations.  And more than that, as President Joe Biden has said, that CSP would – helps us to move our relationship in the next 50 years, not one or two years.  We – Vietnam’s continue to attach great importance to the relationship with the United States, and we want with you to (inaudible) and make – complete a plan of actions to move our relationship forwards in accordance with CSP, not only the high political exchange between our two countries in order to continue to foster our bilateral mutual trust and also to deepen our relationship not only in trade, investment, science, technology, innovation, education, but more than that is in semiconductor and chips.  People-to-people exchange continue to grow, especially with the big community of Vietnamese students in the U.S.  I think it would – they would be the future bridge of our relationship in the future, and ready to work with Your Excellencies the Secretary to move our relationship and discuss issues that can help us to move our relationship forwards.  Thank you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you so much.  Thanks, everyone.