The diplomat hosted a farewell reception at the headquarters of the Vietnamese embassy on May 21, with the attendance of US officials, business circles, scholars and friends, including Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph Felter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Diane Farrell, and President of the US-ASEAN Business Council, Alexander Feldman.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton and guests spoke of their great appreciation for the robust development of the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership over the past three years, ranging from politics, foreign affairs and security, to economy, science-technology, education, people-to-people exchange, and cooperation in regional and international issues of mutual concern and in the enhancement of the ASEAN-US relations.
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Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh meets with Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton.
On behalf of the attending guests, Thornton thanked Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh for having closely coordinated, built trust, and developed a widespread network of friends, while proactively consulting on and working out measures to boost bilateral collaboration, thus serving as an important connection in the relations between the two countries in particular, as well as for ASEAN-US ties as a whole.
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Ambassador Vinh (right) and former US Secretary of State John Kerry.
On May 25, Vinh paid a courtesy visit to former US Secretary of State John Kerry in Massachusetts, during which the Vietnamese ambassador thanked Kerry for having always been a friend of Vietnam and for providing valuable assistance in accelerating Vietnam-US relations.
As part of his farewell activities, Ambassador Vinh also met and expressed gratitude to Matt Pottinger, Assistant to the US President for Asia, and many other officials and friends, including former Senator Jim Webb. Vinh told the US officials that he wished to further accelerate the Vietnam-US cooperative relations across all spheres.
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Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh and Assistant to the US President for Asia, Matt Pottinger.
During the meetings, the Vietnamese diplomat expressed his honour to represent Vietnam and contribute to enhancing the relations between the two countries during the past few years. He extended his thanks to friends and partners for having cooperated and supported him as well as the Vietnamese embassy in fulfilling their assigned tasks, thus contributing to strengthening bilateral ties in all fields with significant milestones recorded.
Vinh has served as the Vietnamese ambassador to the US since late November 2014. Over the past three years, Vietnam-US relations have been carried forward with the momentum of strong development, with both sides conducting frequent exchanges of high-level delegations, notably the historic visit made to the US by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in July 2015, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s arrival for the ASEAN-US Summit in Sunnylands in February 2016, US President Barack Obama’s visit to Vietnam in May 2016, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s US visit in May 2017, and US President Donald Trump’s Vietnam visit in November 2017.
The two countries have also seen a number of positive new developments, such as the removal of the ban on the sales of lethal weapons to Vietnam (May 2016), the transfer of the Hamilton-class coast guard cutter to Vietnam (March 2017), the first-ever visit made by US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Da Nang (March 2018), the opening of the Fulbright University in Vietnam, and the signing of an agreement with the Peace Corps on teaching English in Vietnam.
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