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First published by Ohmynews on 2007-03-11

Trip seen as paving way for first visit to the U.S. by a Vietnamese president since the Vietnam War

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem today arrives in the U.S. to begin a six-day visit to the country at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Speaking about the visit, Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Tam Chien said, "The visit is to promote bilateral relations, especially measures to implement agreements signed during President George Bush's visit to Vietnam in November, 2006."

"We will discuss the agreements reached during the visit to Hanoi of U.S. President Bush," Khiem told the press.

However, one of the most important missions of the visit is to prepare for the first visit by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to the U.S., which is expected to take place in the summer. The trip will be the communist country's highest-ranking leader to visit the United States since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

Pham Gia Khiem, who is concurrently the deputy prime minister of Vietnam, is expected to have talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and various congressmen, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung.

During the six-day visit from March 11 to 16, he will also meet executives of financial institutions, industrial and business giants, as well as representatives from educational organizations and the Vietnamese community in the U.S.

Bilateral relations between the two former adversaries were established in 1995 and have seen much progress in recent years, especially in terms of economic cooperation.

In 2006, the two-way trade reached US$9.7 billion, of which U.S. imports amounted to $8.8 billion. The U.S. is the fourth largest foreign investors in Vietnam with nearly 200 businesses operating in the country.

In 2006 alone, 47 projects were granted with total investment capital of $640 million. According to the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, bilateral trade is forecast to gross $12 billion in 2007.