The mood was warm as Trong effusively praised Biden, saying he welcomed the change to improve cooperation and referenced a meeting they had some eight years ago in Washington.
“You have nary aged a day and I would say you look even better than before,” Trong said. “Every feature of you, Mr. President, is very much complimentary of your image.”
Biden laughed in appreciation, later quoting Irish poets and highlighting the need for the countries to coordinate on a range of issues, saying: “This can be the beginning of even a greater era of cooperation.”
“I think we have an enormous opportunity,” Biden said. “Vietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time. I’m not saying that to be polite. I’m saying it because I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”
The meeting marked a significant moment as Biden attempts to draw Vietnam closer as part of a continued mobilization of countries in the Pacific that can provide a counterweight to China’s rise. Vietnam is an especially crucial part, given that it shares a border with China.
The meeting took place in a wood-paneled conference room, with the U.S. and Vietnamese delegations across from one another and a statue of Ho Chi Minh overlooking from the side. Those sitting near Biden included Secretary of State Antony Blinken and special climate envoy John F. Kerry, whose political career was marked by both his service in and his opposition to the Vietnam War.
The 24-hour stop here — which follows Biden’s trip to New Delhi to attend the Group of 20 summit — also marked the first time that Biden, who has visited dozens of nations and whose generation was engulfed by the Vietnam War, sets foot in the country. He never served in the war and was never part of the protest movement, saying at one point: “I wore sports coats … I’m not big on flak jackets and tie-dyed shirts.”
But he is also, in some ways, bringing the United States closer than ever before to Vietnam, with the impending announcement of a comprehensive strategic partnership, which will link the countries diplomatically to a greater extent.
“This is Vietnam’s highest tier of international partnership. It’s important to make this more than words,” Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Air Force One. “In a system like Vietnam, it’s a signal to the entire government to their entire bureaucracy, about the depth of cooperation and alignment with another country.”
“Vietnam is a critical relationship of the United States and we will be deepening that relationship,” he added.
Human rights groups have condemned the Communist Party of Vietnam for its treatment of its citizens, estimating that the government currently has detained about 200 political prisoners.
The State Department has previously acknowledged credible reports of the government imprisoning, torturing and killing activists under a corrupt judiciary that has invaded privacy and restricted free press, religion and assembly.
Advocates have called on the Biden administration to demand concessions from the government before upgrading diplomatic relations, a plea echoed Friday by five members of the Congressional Vietnam Caucus.
Representatives wrote to Biden ahead of his visit, calling on the administration to demand the release of prisoners of conscience, a moratorium on arrests of human rights advocates and amnesty for political prisoners before any arms deal with Vietnam is made.
“It’s outrageous that President Biden has chosen to upgrade diplomatic ties with Vietnam at a time when the one-party state is in the middle of a brutal crackdown on activism, dissent, and civil society,” Ben Swanton, co-director of Project 88, a U.S.-based human rights organization focused on Vietnam, said in a statement. “Despite lofty rhetoric about promoting a ‘rules-based international order’ and defending freedom, Biden is once again cozying up to autocrats with atrocious human rights records.”
Biden began the day in New Delhi, gathering with some of the world’s top leaders at a memorial site for Mohandas K. Gandhi, one of history’s foremost independence figures known for espousing nonviolent resistance, at a time when the world’s richest nations are consumed by debate over Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
He and other leaders in the G-20 each greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They removed their shoes or donned slippers and approached the memorial, which was covered with yellow, orange and white flowers, and an eternal flame in the middle to mark the site where Gandhi was cremated following his assassination in 1948.
On a rainy and humid morning, the leaders observed a moment of silence and listened to Gandhi’s favorite hymns before leaving wreaths in his honor. The group walked around the site but offered no public remarks.
Biden’s departure from New Delhi concluded his participation over the past two days at the G-20 summit, while some leaders continued to meet for a luncheon and an afternoon session.
Biden and other world leaders on Saturday afternoon announced plans for a new rail and shipping corridor that would connect India and Europe through the Middle East, an ambitious proposal aimed at further connecting a volatile region and countering China’s years-long backing of massive infrastructure projects around the world.
The leaders also reached consensus on a 37-page joint declaration on 83 points, several of which referred to Russia’s war in Ukraine but in weaker terms than they agreed to a year earlier during the G-20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia.
In a Facebook post, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the G-20 has “nothing to be proud of” in regard to its language on Russian aggression in Ukraine, and he offered his own edits of how the portions regarding Ukraine should have been written.
Finer defended the language on Sunday, saying that it did not indicate any move away from Ukrainian support.
“The statement is a major step forward in this effort, highlighting the major economies of around the world — including by the way Brazil, India, South Africa — are united on the need to uphold international law and for Russia to respect international law,” he said.
The declaration, which addressed a range of other issues including climate change, did help to demonstrate that the alliance of the world’s top economic powers could still find some consensus.
Biden came to the conference determined to try to showcase that the G-20 can maintain its relevance, particularly after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin sent deputies instead of attending themselves amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Asked whether Xi’s absence affected the summit, Biden said on Saturday: “It would be nice to have him here but, no, the summit is going well.”
Finer said that during the summit, Biden had “brief greetings” with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, but they did not have time for a “more substantive conversation.” He said Biden had interactions with nearly every leader at the G-20, but he was unaware of any exchanges he had with the deputies sent by Xi and Putin.
Biden is slated to depart Vietnam on Monday, with plans to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during a refueling stop at a military base in Alaska. He is planning to meet with members of the military and deliver remarks.