US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper in the interview with the Vietnam News Agency (Photo: VNA) Phu Yen, (VNA) – The US-led PacificPartnership 2023 (PP23) has been implemented in the southcentral coastal province of Phu Yen, featuring activities like schoolconstruction, medical training workshops, free surgeries for local residents,and musical exchanges, among others.
The programme isin some ways a microcosm of the broader cooperation that the US enjoys withVietnam in many different areas, said US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper in an interview grantedto the Vietnam News Agency following the successful programme.
The Ambassador said he is very grateful to the Government ofVietnam and the people and authorities in Phu Yen province for the really warmhospitality and the great collaboration to make this success.
“I think PacificPartnership 2023 is in some ways a microcosm of the broader cooperation that weenjoy with Vietnam in so many different areas such as humanitarian assistance,disaster response, and medical cooperation. They are all parts of our effort tomake Vietnam stronger, more resilient, prosperous, and independent, which ofcourse, is our basic and fundamental policy and approach to Vietnam,” he said.
Knapper said he believes Vietnam and the United States share important goalsand interests in the Indo-Pacific, whether it's ensuring a free and openIndo-Pacific or a free and open East Sea – an East Sea in which countries areable to engage in commerce and in freedom of navigation.
He went on to say that the US is also very much welcome Vietnam's strongrole in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), noting the two countries share goals forpromoting prosperity and trade to ensure boththe two peoples are able to succeed and prosper.
“We also share strong goals and really welcome Vietnam's role in terms ofclimate change and transitioning to a clean energy economy. These are all things that we believe Vietnam is very muchcentrally positioned to promote not just regionally but also globally,” he said.
According to the Ambassador, Pacific Partnership2023 comprises four lines of effort - medical cooperation; engineering, in other words, construction; disaster relief; andcommunity relations and there are excellent examples of all four of these linesof effort in this specific partnership.
He cited as an example a brand new school that the Navy Seabees built in 47days, with three classrooms - a really remarkable effort under grueling weatherconditions. He said the construction of the school was one really importantarea because it shows the shared interest in investing in education, andpromoting the youth of Vietnam and their brighter futures.
In terms of medical cooperation, a number of pediatric surgeries and some dental consultations wereprovided under the programme, and in communityrelations, a joint concert between the Navy performers and the Sao Viet groupwas held, which was very well received by the community. In humanitarian assistance disaster relief, there was a sharedactivity in which both sides prepared for practice responding to an event inwhich a number of injured people were broughtto the hospital.
“In all four of these areas, we've worked todeepen our friendship and understanding as well as we hope to contribute to thecommunity here in significant and concreteways,” the ambassador affirmed.
Knapper said he has been in Vietnam about a year and a half,and the more time he works on different areas of cooperation between the twocountries, whether it's in terms of economic cooperation, health cooperation,climate cooperation, security cooperation, people-to-people ties, education,high-tech exchanges; the more he is convinced that the futures of the twocountries are inextricably linked.
“I really believe that we share the same interests and the same goals. We'reworking together on issues related to education and ensuring that Vietnam’s young people are highly skilled technical workers neededfor the economy in the 21st century,” he said.
The diplomat further noted that the two countries are also working together onshared issues involving the East Sea or the Mekong, and also working on their sharedinterests in promoting prosperity and a strong, independent, and prosperousVietnam.
According to him, in all these areas, the United States and Vietnam share thesame future.
“I'm very excited about where we are now, but I'm even more excited about whereour two countries are going in the future,” he said./.
VNA
