Donald Trump congratulated by Vietnamese prime minister

By Bennett Murray

HANOI

United States President-elect Donald Trump has told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that he will seek closer ties with Hanoi in a phone call.

“The Vietnamese government chief congratulated Mr. Trump on his election as the 45th president of the U.S., affirming that Vietnam attaches importance to the friendship and cooperation with the U.S.,” read a statement issued Thursday by the Vietnamese government’s official news site.

Trump, who spoke with Phuc on Wednesday, reportedly told the prime minister that he wishes to “accelerate the relationship between the two countries”.

Washington, whose war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s ended in an American defeat and the loss of millions of mostly Vietnamese lives, has grown increasingly closer to Vietnam in recent years as both countries oppose Chinese maritime claims to most of the South China Sea.

In a visit to Hanoi in May 2016, President Barack Obama announced an end to the U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam, which had been in effect since the war.

Trump’s pledge to scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership, however, is at odds with Vietnam’s support for the regional trade deal. Under the treaty’s tariff slashing provisions, Vietnam would have potentially seen increased exports to the lucrative U.S. market.

Following Trump’s victory, Phuc announced that Vietnam would shelve parliamentary ratification of the trade deal due to the changing political winds in Washington.