During his trip to the United States from August 27-28, 2026, Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang engaged with senior US officials, including representatives from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The purpose of these meetings was to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations, particularly focusing on economic, trade, financial, and technological cooperation. Thang emphasized Vietnam's commitment to maintaining a stable and effective relationship with the U.S., viewing it as a top strategic partner, and conveyed high-level greetings from Vietnam to the U.S. administration.
Key discussions centered on advancing bilateral trade relations and expediting the negotiation process for a Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade Agreement (ART). In a meeting with USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer, Thang reaffirmed Vietnam’s commitment to ensuring a smooth global supply chain and expressed readiness for open and constructive dialogue regarding U.S. concerns. Ambassador Greer reciprocated the desire for close coordination to finalize the ART negotiations and acknowledged Vietnam’s request for the U.S. to objectively consider Vietnam’s efforts in resolving shared concerns and to facilitate Vietnamese exports into the U.S. market.
Thang also met with Deputy Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, where he reiterated Vietnam’s independent foreign policy and its desire for mutually beneficial cooperation with the U.S. He welcomed U.S. technology companies to expand investments, transfer technology, and train high-quality human resources to integrate Vietnam more deeply into global supply chains. With Deputy Secretaries Jeffrey Kessler and William Kimmitt from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Thang highlighted Vietnam's new development model driven by science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation. He urged the U.S. Department of Commerce to support harmonious and sustainable trade-investment cooperation, remove Vietnam from the D1 and D3 export control lists, recognize Vietnam as a market economy, and adopt an objective approach in trade defense cases involving Vietnamese goods.
In a meeting with Caroline Vik, Policy Director at the DFC, Deputy Prime Minister Thang welcomed the DFC’s interest in the Vietnamese market and its role in funding high-quality development projects. He requested increased financing, loans, and guarantees for infrastructure, energy transition, digital infrastructure, and healthcare projects, as well as support for Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises. Vik highlighted DFC's global portfolio of approximately $205 billion and its diverse financial tools, noting significant alignment in strategic priorities, especially in pharmaceuticals, digital infrastructure, semiconductors, AI, energy, and critical mineral supply chains. She requested specific project and enterprise information from Vietnam to accelerate collaboration.
