(VOVworld) – Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s recent visit to the US has drawn great attention from American citizens. US politicians and scholars and the Vietnamese community in the US are all optimistic about the positive results the visit created for bilateral ties. Former US ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak said the visit affirmed the mutual respect and trust between Vietnam and the US: “Well, I think that this is a historical visit. It shows the depth of the trust that now exists between our two countries. And I think that this is the implementation of a statement that both of our countries have made in the comprehensive partnership. We have mutual respect for each other’s political systems. Having the General Secretary here shows our respect for Vietnam’s system and his coming here showing his respect for our system. So I think that this is taking our relationship to another level, and we look forward to more continued development of trust and respect on our two sides.”

Murray Hiebert, deputy director of the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)said the visit was a success: “I would like to see president Obama accept the invitation and go to Vietnam later this year, I hope in November, when he goes to the APEC and the East Asia summit. But longer term they talked about many different things, and we have to see how they follow up. When you visit you can promise many things but the result is only visible in a few years, when you will see what they have actually done to build-up the visit.”

US scholars said that mutual respect, trust and cooperation were the messages conveyed through the visit, which will continue to be the guideline for Vietnam-US relations. Overseas Vietnamese people, meanwhile, considered the visit an opportunity to learn more about their homeland and build up their faith in relations between the two countries.