Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presents major solutions to global crises during the general debate of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York 

Building trust - reigniting global solidarity

More than 150 country leaders attended the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) themed “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all”. During this session, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered an important speech.

The speech was themed “Joining efforts to reinforce trust, show sincerity, strengthen solidarity, foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation, effectively respond to all-people global challenges and promote sustainable development, taking people as the center, the subject, the goal, the driving force and the resource of development.”

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that only trust, sincerity and solidarity on a global scale, led by the United Nations and engaged by all countries, can help the international community to overcome challenges, promote peace, cooperation and prosperous development in the world and bring happiness and wellbeing to all people.

Evaluating current difficulties and challenges, he further stated that the world currently faces a serious crisis in trust, multilateral cooperation, principles and resources. He emphasized that it is the duty and responsibility of world leaders to work together to strengthen trust, sincerity, solidarity and promote multilateral and bilateral cooperation; effectively respond to global and all-people challenges; foster sustainable development; and take people as the center, the subject, the goal, the driving force and the resource of development.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh rings the bell to open a trading session at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

Vietnam continues to pursue its independent and self-reliant foreign policy based on diversification and multilateralization. The country aims to be a good friend, a reliable partner of all countries, and an active, responsible member of the international community. Vietnam is committed to contributing more strongly and responsibly to the United Nations’ priorities, such as increasing participation in peacekeeping, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, and ensuring domestic food security while helping ensure global food security.

During this visit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had nearly 20 bilateral meetings with leaders of partner countries, international organizations and U.S. politicians, such as the UN Secretary-General, President of the UN General Assembly, President of Cuba, Prime Minister of Thailand, President of Romania, President of Slovenia and President of Finland.

According to Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, partners expressed their appreciation for Vietnam’s position, role and positive voice. They agreed to increase delegation exchanges and cooperation on politics, diplomacy, economy, trade, science and technology, labor, tourism, education and training, and people-to-people exchanges, as well as mutual support at regional and international forums. Leaders of many countries endorsed the importance of peacefully resolving disputes in the East Sea on the basis of international law, including UNCLOS 1982. They also emphasized ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea.

During this visit, Vietnam established diplomatic relations with Tonga. This increased the number of countries having diplomatic relations with Vietnam to 193.

By making effective and substantive contributions in all aspects at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations, Vietnam demonstrated its peaceful, active and responsible role in the international community.

Advancing Vietnam–U.S. agreements and commitments

During his official visit to the United States, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conducted a series of bilateral activities in San Francisco, Washington DC, and New York. The visit took place shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden’s state visit to Vietnam, which upgraded the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership for peace, security and sustainable development. Therefore, the Prime Minister’s bilateral activities were crucial in concretizing and implementing agreements and commitments reached between senior leaders of the two countries.

Prime Minister Chinh held meetings with the U.S. Vice President, congressional leaders, national security advisor, and other key officials. He also delivered policy speeches at Georgetown University in Washington DC and San Francisco University in San Francisco. The Prime Minister spent time meeting with overseas Vietnamese in the U.S., conversing with the Vietnamese Innovation Network in the U.S., and meeting American friends who loved and supported Vietnam. These meetings reinforced the passion of overseas Vietnamese for their homeland and solidarity with American friends, while strengthening Vietnam’s development and cultivating Vietnam-U.S. relations.

In particular, Prime Minister Chinh chaired the Vietnam-U.S. business forum and held talks with U.S. businesses. He paid working visits to world-leading semiconductor chip manufacturers and tech giants in Silicon Valley such as NVIDIA, Synopsys and Facebook. The Prime Minister hosted meetings with leaders of many major corporations and investment funds of the U.S. and the world such as Apple, Google and Boeing. He also visited and rang the opening bell at the world’s two leading stock exchanges: New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other delegates witness the awarding ceremony of several cooperation agreements at the Vietnam-U.S. Business Forum

During his meetings with major U.S. businesses, investors, and financial corporations, Prime Minister Chinh expressed Vietnam’s warm welcome to investors, including those from the U.S. The country is committed to accompanying, listening to, and supporting investors while striving to perfect socialist-oriented market institutions. Vietnam aims to advance innovative infrastructure development, both hard and soft infrastructure, with a focus on high-quality human resources training and administrative reform. These efforts aim to boost facilitation, reduce costs, and increase competitiveness for investors in the new context.

In the coming time, Vietnam prioritizes investment projects in new industries and fields such as innovation, green economy, digital economy, circular economy, sharing economy, climate change response, semiconductor production, new energy (such as hydrogen), and renewable energy. Notably, U.S. semiconductor corporations affirmed their high determination to the Vietnamese market and envisaged high prospects for semiconductor cooperation between Vietnamese and U.S. partners in the new era.

Given that Vietnam can and needs to aim for leading positions in high-tech supply chains, businesses have put forth policy recommendations and proposed specific methods and cooperation projects to successfully develop the semiconductor ecosystem in Vietnam. The United States is a leading strategic partner in this regard.

According to Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, U.S. partners expressed their appreciation for Vietnam’s position, role and positive voice. They agreed to increase delegation exchanges and cooperation on politics, diplomacy, economy, trade, science and technology, labor, tourism, education and training, people-to-people exchanges, as well as mutual support at regional and international forums. The U.S. responded positively to Vietnam’s high priorities on recognizing the market economy status of Vietnam, limiting trade defense measures, further opening the market for some Vietnamese export products, supporting Vietnam in building a semiconductor ecosystem to participate more deeply in the global supply chain, and supporting Vietnam to heal war consequences.

The U.S. business community affirmed its commitment to further expand investment and business in Vietnam. Many cooperation agreements on infrastructure, digital transformation, green transformation, and high technology were signed and exchanged.

This important trip conveyed the great message of the Party, State, and Government of Vietnam to the United States and international friends about a peaceful, cooperative, and integrative Vietnam. It also highlighted more active and effective participation in international processes and important contributions to the Vietnam-UN and Vietnam-U.S. relations in line with the foreign policy adopted by the 13th National Party Congress.