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U.S. defense secretary highlights socioeconomic development in Vietnam

Xinhua, June 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter paid a courtesy call on Communist Party of Vietnam ( CPV) General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on Monday, highlighting socio-economic development in the country over the past time.

Carter Expressed his joy for the first time to visit Vietnam on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries,

Based on the U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership which was established in July 2013, the bilateral relations have yielded positive progresses, including those in security-defense areas, said Carter.

The United States attaches importance and wants to further strengthen multi-faceted cooperation with Vietnam, the state-run news agency VNA quoted Carter as saying on Monday.

Agreeing on the necessity of greater exchanges of high-level visits between two countries, the U.S. defense secretary stressed the importance and historic meaning of the CPV chief's upcoming visit to the United States.

CPV chief Nguyen Phu Trong, for his part, said at the meeting that he is pleased with positive development in all-round cooperation between Vietnam and the United States 40 years after the end of the war and 20 years after normalization of diplomatic relations.

It is a consistent policy of the CPV and Vietnamese state to boost Vietnam-U.S. cooperation, for long-term interest of two peoples, for peace, stability and development in the region and in the world, Trong affirmed.

Trong said at the meeting that he acknowledges cooperation of the U.S. government, congress, organizations and individuals in resolving the consequences of war, as well as cooperation between the U.S. defense secretary and Vietnamese defense ministry in demining, environmental cleanup, humanitarian assistance and search for missing soldiers.

Trong also emphasized that the United States needs to put more efforts in the area, which aims to increase mutual trust and understanding to lay foundation for development of bilateral relations, including that in the defense area.

At the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on several regional and international issues of common interests.

Carter is on his official visit to Vietnam from May 31 to June 1 at the invitation of Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh. Endi