U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Vietnam: Main takeaways

• U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Vietnam’s top officials met on Wednesday, August 25, carrying out talks on several key areas, including the enhancement of maritime security, boosting economic cooperation, combating climate change and providing healthcare support, reports Reuters.

• Earlier, on Tuesday, Harris’ flight from Singapore to Hanoi was delayed by more than three hours after the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi was made aware of an “anomalous health incident,” which referred to the mysterious Havana Syndrome.

• Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held an unannounced meeting with Chinese Ambassador Xiong Bo, just before Harris’ arrival, affirming that “Vietnam does not align itself with one country against another.” Beijing also offered Vietnam an additional 2 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine during the meeting.

• Vice President Harris made sharp criticism at China’s “bullying” in the South China Sea while urging Vietnam to join the United States against Beijing’s advances, reports Associated Press. “We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims,” Harris said at the opening of a meeting with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

• The U.S. Embassy in Vietnam has signed an agreement with Hanoi authorities, in the presence of Vice President Harris, for a land lease to build a new $1.2 billion embassy campus in the city, reports VnExpress. The new embassy, which will be located in the Cau Giay District, is a project announced by Vietnam and the United States in 2019.

• Vice President Harris announced that the United States would donateone million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses to Vietnam, bringing the total number of vaccines donated by the United States to the country to six million doses. Meanwhile, a new regional office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will open in Hanoi, with a mission of “protecting Americans and people of the region” and “building key relationships to tackle shared health priorities,” according to the CDC press release.

• “We’re not going to shy away from difficult conversations,” said Vice President Harris during her meeting with Vietnamese leaders regarding human rights abuses and political activism in Vietnam, according to Associated Press. However, the results of those discussions remain unclear. Overall, Vietnam is notoriously known for its crackdown on freedom of speech and the arrests of political dissidents.

• Strengthening the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership, from the White House press release: “The Vice President’s travel to Vietnam signifies the United States’ deep commitment not only to the region but also to the U.S. – Vietnam relationship. In bilateral meetings with Vietnamese leaders, Vice President Harris reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam, as well a free, open, healthy, and resilient Indo-Pacific region.”

The Covid-19 situation in Vietnam

• In total, Vietnam has recorded over 430,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases with more than 10,000 deaths as of Sunday, August 29, 2021.

• Vietnam to deploy troops to contain the surge of Covid-19 infections in Binh Duong Province, a major manufacturing hub, reports Reuters. The southern province, which is located nearby Ho Chi Minh City, is expected to record an additional 50,000 coronavirus cases over the next two weeks.

• Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam was replaced by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh as head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 prevention and control. The replacement decision came amid the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Southeast Asian nation.

• Ho Chi Minh City to resume delivery service operations in the city reports VnExpress. According to local authorities, delivery drivers, popularly known as “shippers” in Vietnam, will be allowed to operate in Covid-19 high-risk districts to relieve shopping demands among locals. Delivery drivers, along with temporary contractors and migrant workers, are among the most vulnerable groups during the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam.

• Vietnam’s homegrown Covid-19 vaccine NanoCovax to be granted emergency use after being approved by The National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research, reports VietnamPlus: “The National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research under the Ministry of Health (MoH) has agreed that the mid-term results from Nano Covax’s phase 3 clinical trials will be submitted to the Advisory Council for the Registration of Circulation of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients for considering the issuance of a registration certificate for the conditional circulation of the vaccine.”

• Covid-19 vaccine donations to Vietnam: Australia donated to Vietnam a total of 403,000 AstraZeneca doses, as part of an “ongoing commitment to help Vietnam in its fight against the pandemic,” wrote the Australian Embassy in Vietnam. Meanwhile, on August 25, Italy also announced its donation of over 800,000 AstraZeneca doses to Vietnam via the COVAX Initiative, while over 500,000 vaccine doses, also made by AstraZeneca, arrived in Hanoi on August 23 as a donation from the Polish government.

• The Vatican sends financial aid to help Vietnam deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Reuters: “About $70,000 was sent to Bangladesh for continuing recovery assistance from Cyclone Yaas, which left tens of thousands of people homeless last May, and about 100,000 euros to Vietnam, where food supplies have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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The Diplomat/ Khang Vu/ August 25