A onetime enemy set for a warm White House welcome

Nations can’t choose their neighbors, but Vietnam, a country long buffeted by war, is proving it can certainly choose its friends.

President Trump on Wednesday will greet Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the White House, the clearest sign to date that Washington and Hanoi, once-implacable foes burdened by a bloody and tragic history, increasingly share overlapping strategic interests and a mutual outlook on the region and the world.

It’s a measure of how far the two countries have come — and how large Vietnam looms in the emerging Trump administration strategy for Asia — that Mr. Phuc will be the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House since Mr. Trump’s election.

The arrival of Vietnam’s delegation of more than 100 diplomats and business leaders bolsters hopes that Mr. Trump will make the trip in November to attend the APEC Summit that Vietnam is hosting in Da Nang. As a sign of expanding business interests between the two countries, the Washington-based U.S.-ASEAN Business Council is hosting a formal dinner reception.

“If the two countries enter a mutually beneficial free trade agreement that was recently suggested by many American firms doing business in Vietnam, such an agreement will reflect the growing trend and vast potential of our economies and help create more jobs for Americans and Vietnamese alike,” said Tran Tuan, Minister of Industry and Trade.

Source: washingtontimes.com

Collected by Nhu Vu SAPUWA