US President Donald Trump addressed the APEC CEO Summit in Da Nang on November 10, 2017

In an interview with a Voice of Vietnam correspondent in the US, Nelson praised Vietnam’s role as host of the APEC meetings, through which he said Vietnam will show the world its commitment to economic reform and integration into the global economy. The US president’s attendance at the event shows the priority US is giving to relations with Asia. Nelson said: “I would hope that the administration will take the opportunity of APEC to have President Trump engaged with many other leaders that are important to the US. Some are allies, some may not be. But the relationship still matters tremendously. Especially in Asia, the face to face engagement and the willingness to be present are tremendously important. So that’s the good step that President Trump is willing to do that. Hopefully, he will bring along some of the key members of his cabinet who can continue driving the policy decision toward somewhere we have more a little articulation of what the US wants.”

Nelson said that President Trump’s visit to Vietnam shows the respect the US has for its relationship with Vietnam and its hope for more cooperative deals. He said, “I know Vietnam when the Prime Minister came to the US. One of the reasons that he came was to lay the groundwork for the relationship moving forward. It’s important to have discussions through the government about the US-Vietnam relationship. I think we will see commitments to continue close cooperation between the two countries. Now whether they are ready to move forward on something like bilateral FTA, that may be a little bit far in the future. But each meeting like this, each time we have this high level engagement, they can build up the steps toward the continuing bilateral relations.”

According to Nelson, many new cooperative opportunities will open following President Trump’s visit.