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Vietnam’s top leader To Lam will meet US President Joe Biden in New York on Wednesday after businesses from both sides signed deals on semiconductors, AI and aviation.
The meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly comes a year after the two nations struck a deal to deepen relations and cooperation on strategic supplies in the face of growing competition from China.
Washington wants to diversify manufacturing supply chains away from over-dependence on strategic rival China and is pushing Vietnam as a reliable partner in that drive.
Communist Vietnam — long a low-cost destination to make clothes, shoes and furniture — is also eyeing a rapid climb up the global supply chain, and Lam has had meetings with bosses from Apple and Meta and IT firm Supermicro in New York.
Vietnam is particularly intent on developing its capabilities in the lucrative chip industry, with global supply chain shocks and fears about US reliance on China for key resources boosting investment in the Southeast Asian country.
The White House said on Tuesday the meeting would be “an important opportunity for the two leaders to talk about our shared interest in stability and prosperity in Southeast Asia”.
During Lam’s trip, Supermicro signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam’s Sovico in the fields of AI, semiconductors and data centre construction, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.
Low-cost airline Vietjet Air and US-based Honeywell Aerospace Technologies also signed a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement, according to Vietjet, and other cooperation deals were agreed in the oil and gas sectors.
Lam asked the tech giant Apple to consider setting up a Research and Development centre in Vietnam, according to the government’s report of the meeting.
He also said during a business seminar in New York he hoped the United States would become the largest investor in Vietnam, it said.
Lam also said he expected the US government to soon recognise Vietnam as a market economy.
Hours ahead of his visit, two high-profile detainees — one climate activist and a dissident — were released from jail in Vietnam.
Lam took office in early August as general secretary following the death of his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong, whom Biden hailed as “a champion of the deep ties” between the two countries.
He met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing just a few weeks later during his first overseas trip.
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