US, Vietnam ink key deals on planes, semiconductors as Biden visits Hanoi

US President Joe Biden on Sunday secured deals with Vietnam on semiconductors minerals and planes as the strategic Southeast Asian nation lifted Washington to Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status alongside China and Russia.

The US has been pushing for the upgrade for months as it sees the manufacturing dynamo as a key country in its strategy to secure global supply chains from China-related risks.

Aimed at securing global supply chains

• US President Joe Biden said the US and Vietnam were deepening cooperation on emerging technologies and semiconductors
• The US has been pushing for the upgrade for months as it sees the manufacturing dynamo as a key country in its strategy to secure global supply chains from China-related risks
• Biden’s visit comes as bilateral trade and investment ties are growing and a long-simmering dispute between Vietnam and China heats up in the South China Sea

Vietnam Airlines has agreed to buy about 50 Boeing 737 Max jets in a deal valued at about $7.5 billion. The deal will support “over 33,000 direct and indirect jobs” in the US, the White House said in a statement.

A half-century after a lengthy and brutal Cold War-era conflict, Biden arrived in Hanoi to a ceremony organised by the ruling Communist Party that included school children waving American flags and honour guards carrying bayoneted rifles.

“We can trace a 50-year arc of progress between our nations, from conflict to normalisation, to this new elevated status,” he said.

The partnership with Vietnam is part of the Biden administration’s push “to demonstrate to our our Indo-Pacific partners and to the world, the United States is a Pacific nation and we’re not going anywhere,” Biden told reporters after the meeting in Hanoi.

Vietnam is navigating frosty relations between Washington and Beijing as the tech and textile exporter seeks its own foothold in the international competition to be a low-cost manufacturing hub.

Top Chinese officials, possibly including President Xi Jinping, are expected to visit Vietnam in the coming days or weeks, officials and diplomats said, as Hanoi seeks to maintain good relations with all super powers. Biden also said in Hanoi he had talked with Xi’s deputy at the G20, and that the two talked about stability