The NA leader said the US is one of the most important partners of Vietnam notonly bilaterally but also regionally and globally. He affirmed that Vietnamwants to promote relations with the US via all channels, from political party,government and parliament to people-to-people exchanges.
Hue hailed the great contributions that many US senators and congressmen have madeto the normalization and development of the Vietnam-US relationship, citing asexamples late senator John McCain, former senator John Kerry and president pro tempore of the US Senate Patrick Leahy.
He asked the US ambassador to help further promote the ties between the twocountries’ parliaments to be commensurate with the Vietnam-US comprehensivepartnership.
Knapper said a number of US senators and congressmen have expressed stronginterest and a wish to play a role in promoting not only the US-Vietnamrelations but also the ties between the law making bodies of the two countries.
He informed that the president protempore of the US Senate, Patrick Leahy, will again visit Vietnam late this year, followedby former senator John Kerry, saying that he wants tocoordinate closely with the Vietnamese NA’s agencies to ensure the success ofthose visits.
The ambassador also took the occasion to reveal that the US House of Representativesis working to establish a group of US-Vietnam friendship parliamentary group similar tothe Vietnam-US Friendship Parliamentary Group in the Vietnamese NationalAssembly. The formation of the group is intended to stir the interest inVietnam among members of the House and promote exchanges and contacts betweenlegislative bodies of the two countries, he said./.