Former US President Bill Clinton, who is President of the Clinton Foundation, affirmed that the fund will continue to help Vietnam in HIV/AIDS prevention, expand cooperation in coping with climate change and manage water resources, especially in the Mekong region.

Clinton made the remark while he was receiving by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi on Nov. 14.

At the reception, both sides discussed active developments in the Vietnam-US relationship after 15 years of normalisation, prospects for the future and the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS prevention and climate change related activities in Vietnam .

Clinton said he was impressed with significant changes in Vietnam since his last visit to the country in 2005.
PM Dung highlighted President Clinton’s support in promoting the Vietnam-US relations and thanked him and his foundation for their charitable activities in Vietnam.

PM Dung said that Vietnam has always attached importance to developing relations with the US and wants to improve cooperation in all fields in the future. He asked the US to continue to help Vietnam overcome the aftermaths of war, including the consequences of Agent Orange.

Since 2005, the Clinton Foundation has directly helped Vietnam in perfecting its system for treating HIV/AIDS and improved health workers’ skills in diagnosing, taking care of and treating people living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam . The Foundation has also implemented a climate change initiative to support the country’s two major cities, Hanoi and HCM City .

Earlier, Clinton had a meeting with officials and nearly 600 students from the University of Foreign Trade and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

At the meeting, Clinton shared his thoughts on the prospects for Vietnam-US relations and expressed his wish that the people of both nations, especially young Vietnamese people will continue to develop the Vietnam-US relationship.

Since 1995, Vietnam and US have been maintaining a positive and comprehensive relations in all fields, namely politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, science and technology, education and training, security and defence, and human assistance, he said.

The US has become Vietnam’s largest export market and is currently one of the six largest foreign investors in the country with committed investment of 15 billion USD, Clinton said.

The approval and effectiveness of the Vietnam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement in 2001 have created a breakthrough in bilateral trade. Despite the economic downturn in 2009, the US exports to Vietnam increased by 7 percent, he said.

Education cooperation is also a success in bilateral relationship. 13,000 Vietnamese students in US universities make the Southeast Asian country the eighth among all nations in the world in terms of the number of students in the US , he noted./.