By Steve Holland and Simon Lewis
NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will hold talks with Vietnam’s president and ruling Communist Party chief To Lam on Wednesday as the U.S. leader closes out his final appearance at a United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The meeting, on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders, is part of Biden’s push to deepen relations with the strategic Southeast Asian country and manufacturing hub and counter China and Russia, with which Vietnam also retains ties.
With four months left to his presidency, Biden in his valedictory U.N. speech on Tuesday urged support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia and called for a diplomatic solution to a rise in Middle East hostilities.
To Lam, making his first visit to the U.S. as president, met in New York on Monday with representatives of U.S. companies operating in Vietnam, including Amazon, Procter & Gamble and Visa.
He asked business leaders to back Hanoi’s bid to have Washington remove it from the list of non-market economies and lift other trade restrictions and for the U.S. and Vietnam to cooperate on semiconductor supply chains.
Ted Osius, president and CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council and a former U.S. ambassador to Hanoi, told Reuters that To Lam had long engaged with U.S. officials.
“This (To Lam) is a guy who has seen the opportunities of the U.S. relationship for a long time,” Osius said.
Biden visited Vietnam a year ago and secured deals on semiconductors and minerals and an upgrade in diplomatic ties between the countries.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Simon Lewis; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)
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