The United States and Vietnam have agreed to billions of dollars in trade deals and partnerships led by companies including Boeing, Microsoft and Nvidia, after the former enemies improved ties in a historic shift in response to China's growing influence. US President Joe Biden praised the move to strengthen cooperation in areas including cloud computing, semiconductors and artificial intelligence, while in Hanoi on a two-day trip to mark the formal upgrade of the relationship. between the countries. "We are deepening our cooperation on critical and emerging technologies, particularly around building a more resilient semiconductor supply chain," Biden said at a joint news conference late Sunday with Nguyen Phu Trong, the president's secretary-general. Communist Party of Vietnam. . "We are expanding our economic partnership, stimulating even greater trade and investment between our nations.
Top executives from Google, Intel, Amkor, Marvell, GlobalFoundries and Boeing on Monday joined a Vietnam-US Innovation and Investment Summit led by Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Vietnam's Prime Minister , Pham Job Function Email Database Minh Chinh, and the Minister of Investment, Nguyen Chi Dung. The business conference was also attended by executives from Vietnamese companies, including VinFast, the electric vehicle maker whose valuation surpassed those of Ford and General Motors after its listing on Nasdaq last month. The deals unveiled on Monday are expected to kick off a wave of investment deals between Vietnam and the United States after the countries' leaders signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” on Sunday. The change elevated Washington two levels to the highest status in Hanoi's hierarchy of bilateral relations, which was previously reserved for China, Russia, India and South Korea. Vietnam had long refrained from improving ties with the United States, its former wartime adversary, to avoid upsetting China.
In addition to significant security implications — the United States views developing countries in Asia as crucial to countering China's power in the Indo-Pacific region — improving ties bring significant economic opportunities, both sides said. . Since Vietnam, which was Asia's fastest-growing economy last year, moved from centralized economic control to a more open model, the United States has become its largest export market. Major technology groups including Apple, Google and Dell have already expanded their presence in the country in recent years as they seek to diversify supply chains away from China amid deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington. Among the deals announced Monday were a billion deal for Vietnam Airlines to buy 50 737 Max planes from plane maker Boeing, artificial intelligence projects in the country involving Nvidia and Microsoft, and the construction of semiconductor design by California-based groups Synopsys and Marvell. in Ho Chi Minh City.