Biden to visit Vietnam in bid to boost ties
US President Joe Biden will visit Vietnam on September 10 and meet top officials to discuss a range of issues from technology and the economy to regional stability and climate change, the White House said on Monday. Biden will meet General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other key leaders in Hanoi before traveling to Alaska to commemorate the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, it added. While in Hanoi, Biden and Vietnamese officials will discuss deepening the two countries' ties as well as boosting "a technology-focused and innovation-driven Vietnamese economy," the White House said in a statement after Biden earlier this month announced plans for the trip. Washington considers Hanoi one of its top partners in the region, especially as the memory of Vietnam War era increasingly fades. Biden and Trong spoke by phone in March, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the southeast Asian nation one month later. (Reuters)