25th anniversary of lifting US trade embargo against Vietnam marked

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the event.

A press release from the US Embassy in Vietnam noted that Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador Pete Peterson (the first US Ambassador to Vietnam following normalization of relations), Ambassador Le Van Bang (the first Vietnamese Ambassador to the US after the normalization, attended the event.

Caryn McClelland, US Chargé d’Affaires ad interim to Vietnam, celebrated 25 years of renewed economic cooperation between the US and Vietnam, during which bilateral trade has grown from just over US$200 million in 1994 to more than $50 billion today.

The diplomat recalled that the end of the embargo “closed one door on our bilateral relationship and opened another … so that we could trade, build people-to-people ties, and cooperate in areas such as education, science, and technology.”

She noted that many people deserve credit for the remarkable progress, including Senators McCain and Kerry, long-term American business people in Vietnam who helped turn opportunity into prosperity, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, which is also celebrating its 25th anniversary.

She also made a special point to thank “Our friends and partners within the Vietnamese Government who made President Clinton’s decision in 1994 more palatable to the American public with their unwavering dedication to helping us with our most somber and sacred task – recovering the remains of our service members who never returned from the war.”

With the US now Vietnam’s largest export market and with Vietnam one of America’s fastest growing markets, McClelland expressed optimism that the two countries will enjoy 25 more years of economic cooperation and growth.