Vietnam, US working to concretize outcomes of top leaders' phone talks

Delegations of Vietnam and the U.S. are conducting negotiations to concretize the outcomes of phone talks between Vietnamese Party General Secretary To Lam and U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang said at the ministry's regular press conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

During the phone talks, the two leaders discussed the bilateral ties between Vietnam and the U.S., including reciprocal trade-related issues, Hang noted.

General Secretary Lam expressed his appreciation for President Trump's attention to Vietnam and the two countries' bilateral relations, she added.

Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the strong progress in bilateral ties and welcomed the two countries' negotiating teams for reaching a joint statement on a fair and balanced reciprocal trade framework.

President Trump praised Vietnam's commitment to granting greater market access for U.S. goods, including large-displacement vehicles.

He confirmed that the U.S. would significantly reduce reciprocal tariffs on many Vietnamese exports and would continue working with Vietnam to resolve trade-related issues, particularly in priority sectors.

The Vietnamese Party chief called on the U.S. to soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy and lift export restrictions on certain high-tech goods.

They also agreed on major measures to deepen the Vietnam-U.S. comprehensive strategic partnership in the coming years, including promoting high-level exchanges and expanding cooperation in key sectors like economy, trade, investment, science, and advanced technology.

Lam reiterated his invitation for President Trump and the First Lady to visit Vietnam and expressed hope to meet him again soon.

President Trump thanked him for the invitation and echoed the sentiment.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that "It is my great honor to announce that I have just made a trade deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the highly respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It will be a great deal of cooperation between our two countries."

In April, the U.S. announced sweeping new tariffs on dozens of trading partners, including a 46-percent reciprocal tariff on imports from Vietnam.

The U.S. president later announced that Vietnam was among the over 75 countries which the U.S. granted a 90-day suspension of retaliatory tariffs and a 10-percent tariff rate during this period to conduct further negotiations.

Thanh Ha - Duy Linh / Tuoi Tre News

(2025/07/04-17:47)