Tran To Nga speaks at a press conference (Photo: VNA)

Hang said Vietnam has repeatedly expressed its stance on the issue. Although the war has ended, its severe consequences continue to profoundly impact Vietnam and Vietnamese people, including the long-term and serious effects of AO/dioxin.

Vietnam strongly supports victims of AO/dioxin and calls on the chemical companies that produced and supplied the toxin to the US during the war in Vietnam, which has caused millions of Vietnamese to suffer, to take responsibility for the damage, she emphasized.

Since 2014, Nga, a French-Vietnamese citizen and AO/dioxin victim, has filed a lawsuit at the Évry Court in a Paris suburb. The lawsuit against US chemical corporations was adjudicated in 2021. However, the Évry Court dismissed the case, citing that the companies were entitled to "sovereign immunity" as they acted under orders from the US government, thus the court did not have jurisdiction over actions by a foreign sovereign state. On May 7 this year, the Paris Court of Appeal held a hearing for Nga’s case against the 14 US chemical companies, including Monsanto, for producing and selling dioxin-laden herbicides used by US forces during the war in Vietnam. On August 22, the court issued a ruling similar to that of the Évry Court.