The honour was presented by Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung, on behalf of State President Luong Cuong, at a ceremony in Ha Noi.
The Order is a prestigious award of the Vietnamese State bestowed upon foreign individuals and collectives for their significant contributions to fostering friendship, solidarity and cooperation between Viet Nam and other countries.
At the reception for the outgoing ambassador following the ceremony, Trung appreciated his important contributions to advancing Viet Nam–US relations, particularly the upgrading of bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2023.
He affirmed that the Ambassador’s proactive role helped generate strong momentum for cooperation across fields, notably politics-diplomacy, trade-economy, defence-security, education-training, science-technology, humanitarian efforts, and post-war recovery.
The minister stressed that Viet Nam attaches great importance to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the US and called for continued close coordination to effectively implement high-level agreements on the basis of mutual respect for each country’s independence, sovereignty, and interests, for peace, cooperation, and development regionally and globally.
For his part, Knapper thanked the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant agencies for their close cooperation and support over the past four years, expressing pride in having contributed to the strong development of bilateral relations. He affirmed that he, in any role, will remain a friend of Viet Nam and continue to support the growth of Viet Nam–US ties.
