(VOVworld) – Vietnamese Ambassador to the US, Pham Quang Vinh, delivered a speech themed “Vietnam and the US in the 21st century: A new beginning” while attending the Vietnam War Summit at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.

Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh delivered the speech at the Vietnam War Summit (Photo: VNA)

Vinh said Vietnam and the US had experienced a painful war with terrible consequences. But a new era has begun, the Ambassador said, quoting Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong during his historic visit to the US last July as saying that the two countries had overcome the pain of war and developed their relationship strongly and actively.

He said the countries’ top leaders affirmed the principle of respecting each other’s political institutions, independence and sovereignty.

Bilateral trade has multiplied by a factor of 90 over the last two decades, from 500 million USD in 1994 to 45 billion USD last year. The Ambassador asked the US to recognise Vietnam’s market economy status and fully lift the ban on weapon sales to his country, which would present a favourable backdrop to the upcoming visit to Vietnam by President Barack Obama.