Addressing the press in Hanoi on June 19, Mr Michalak said that during the visit, PM Dung will hold talks with President George W. Bush and meet with many other senior US officials. High on the agenda will be a number of issues ranging from politics, economics, trade, investment and education cooperation to climate change, cooperation in civil nuclear energy as well as many other regional and global security issues.

The ambassador praised the two countries for making thorough preparations for the visit in a short period of time. This is the fourth consecutive year top US and Vietnamese leaders have made reciprocal visits to each other’s countries. He said President Bush still has had memories of Vietnam following his visit to the Southeast Asian nation in 2006.

According to the ambassador, as the US and Vietnam want to promote bilateral cooperation in economics and trade, a number of cooperative agreements will be signed during Mr Dung’s visit in the hope of improving Vietnam’s investment environment and making it easier for Vietnamese goods to enter the US market.

Mr Michalack said that many US businesses want to operate in the long term in Vietnam and they hope the country’s temporary economic difficulties will be overcome very soon.