PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc visits the Permanent Vietnam Mission to the UN.

An article published on Bloomberg.com on May 29 said that PM Phuc is set to convince President Donald Trump to advance trade ties that blossomed under the Obama administration.

In an interview granted to Bloomberg Television, the PM said he plans to highlight all of the American jobs that Vietnam is currently supporting through the imports of American goods like airplanes, engine turbines and maize. The PM hopes that the promise of American jobs will help to persuade the host to focus more on the strategic benefits of closer trade and security ties.

"The Trump administration is very interested in advancing the relationship with Vietnam because it sees the strategic role Vietnam plays in Asia,” he said.

In recent years, Vietnam and the US have also found common ground on issues regarding regional security.

The same day, the Asia Sentinel ran an article by former US diplomat David Brown, saying that during the Obama years, Washington and Hanoi forged a strategic entente – unofficial, of course, but increasingly real, and Barack Obama’s visit to Vietnam last May was therefore a triumph.

Brown wrote that the US and Vietnam might come to an agreement developing a bilateral trade pact that would entail many Trans-Pacific Partnership-like trade reforms. To the extent that this is true (official confirmation is lacking on both sides), jump-starting bilateral trade talks will be at the top of PM Phuc’s agenda when he visits Washington this week.

Commenting on the visit, Dr. Jonathan D. London, a leading scholar of contemporary Vietnam and the global economy-politics at the Netherlands’s Leiden University underlined the great importance of the visit, saying that a great deal has changed in Vietnam and in its relations with the US, particularly in the two decades since the governments of the two countries normalised ties, and especially over the course of the last several years. The two countries have come to view each other as indispensable strategic partners, especially in trade and security matters. Therefore, the visit not only portends the development of US-Vietnam bilateral relations and the future prospects of Vietnam’s development, but the White House’s intentions with respect to East Asia.

Meanwhile, on May 29, the Washington Times daily ran an article entitled "Vietnam’s Prime Minister White House visit offers US opportunity to define Asia policy”.

Reviewing bilateral ties over the past two decades, the article reveals that trade between the two nations has nearly tripled in the last seven years, and now tops 52 billion USD. The US exports to Vietnam increased by 43.2 percent in 2016, the largest increase among America’s top 30 trade partners and the only one with double-digit growth.

In conclusion, the article suggested that the US take the steps required to recognise Vietnam’s market economy status, ensure maritime security and safety with increased joint naval exercises and increase educational links between American universities and Vietnamese higher education institutions.

It also recommended cooperation in the field of scientific research on regional and global climate change issues, especially in the Lower Mekong Delta while addressing the impact of Agent Orange and the removal of unexploded ordnance in Vietnam.