Vietnamese Ambassador tothe US Le Cong Phung delivered this statement at a ceremony organised inWashington on Jan. 28 to celebrate Vietnam’s traditional LunarNew Year Festival, which will begin on Feb. 3 this year.
Phung told participants that the US government highly evaluatedVietnam’s role in the Pacific region and Southeast Asia. The USgovernment is encouraging US businesses to boost trade and investmentties with Vietnam, and supporting cooperation with the SoutheastAsian country in education, training, science and technology, he added.
Bilateral relations are developing rapidly in allkey spheres such as politics, security and national defence, he said,adding that the two nations will continue dialogues to deal with theoutstanding differences.
Earlier, Phung alsoinformed overseas Vietnamese about the country’s new developments overthe past year as well as its successes in organising the celebrationsfor the 1,000th founding anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, assuming theASEAN Chair and holding the 11th National Party Congress.
The ambassador took this occasion to thank overseas Vietnamese andVietnamese students studying in the US for the assistance they hadextended to people affected by natural disasters in the home country.
The Vietnamese Consulates General in San Franciscoand Houston hosted receptions on Jan. 22 and 26, respectively, tomark the upcoming Tet festival with the participation of a large numberof overseas Vietnamese and foreign friends./.