President Joe Biden and senior executives from prime US tech companies together with Google and Intel met Vietnamese enterprise leaders Monday after the 2 nations agreed to deepen cooperation as Washington seeks to counter China’s rising clout.
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Biden and Vietnam’s ruling Communist Celebration chief – the nation’s paramount chief – struck a “complete strategic partnership” as Washington pushes to spice up its community of allies round Asia and the Pacific.
The US sees manufacturing dynamo Vietnam as an necessary a part of its plan to lower reliance on China for provides of strategic assets, and the brand new pact consists of agreements on semiconductors and uncommon earths.
Executives from tech behemoth Google, chip makers Intel and GlobalFoundries, and aviation large Boeing joined Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for an “innovation and funding summit”.
They held talks with senior figures from a number of main Vietnamese tech and manufacturing corporations together with electrical automobile maker VinFast, web agency VNG and digital pockets Momo.
On the talks, Biden introduced that flag-carrier Vietnam Airways had agreed a $7.8-billion cope with Boeing to purchase 50 medium-haul 737 airliners.
Different offers introduced embrace Microsoft growing a “generative AI-based resolution tailor-made for Vietnam” and NVIDIA teaming up with native corporations to deploy synthetic intelligence within the cloud, automotive and healthcare sectors.
Biden left Vietnam on Monday to fly to Alaska for a 9/11 memorial.
Semiconductor safety
The brand new partnership consists of an settlement on semiconductors, with the USA committing to assist Vietnam develop its capabilities and broaden manufacturing, together with by funding workforce coaching.
Tiny semiconductors are important to trendy life, present in each digital gadget from kids’s toys and smartphones to electrical automobiles and complicated weapon methods.
Biden moved final month to limit US funding in Chinese language expertise in delicate areas together with semiconductors, quantum computing and AI.
With Washington trying to diversify and strengthen its provide chains after a sequence of shocks hit the worldwide economic system, it’s more and more trying to Vietnam, which has the world’s second-largest deposits of uncommon earths – one other strategically important useful resource – after China.
The White Home highlighted US funding in chipmaking in Vietnam, pointing to a brand new $1.6 billion manufacturing unit close to Hanoi because of begin operations quickly.
China difficulties
Biden insisted Sunday that he didn’t need to “comprise” China, however accused Beijing of in search of to vary the foundations of the worldwide order.
And of their joint assertion, Biden and Trong launched a contemporary broadside at Beijing within the sprawling, multi-state territorial row over the South China Sea.
They warned towards “risk or the usage of pressure”, days after the newest conflict involving Chinese language vessels, and insisted the competing claims to the strategic waterway have to be settled beneath worldwide norms.
Beijing claims nearly all the sea, by which trillions of {dollars} in commerce passes yearly, and has ignored a world court docket ruling that its assertion has no authorized foundation.
The president met Chinese language Premier Li Qiang – the nation’s quantity two chief – on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Delhi on Sunday.
Biden mentioned the most important financial issues Beijing was wrestling with would restrict its scope for motion, significantly on Taiwan — which China regards as a renegade province.
“China has a tough financial downside proper now for a complete vary of causes that relate to the worldwide progress and lack thereof and the insurance policies that China has adopted,” he mentioned, pointing to excessive youth unemployment and actual property points.
“I do not suppose it is going to trigger China to invade Taiwan. As a matter of truth, the alternative — it most likely does not have the identical capability that it had earlier than.”
Vietnam has its personal squabbles with Beijing, notably over the contested South China Sea.
Hanoi’s state media on Monday hailed the cope with former battle foe the USA as “historic”.
Biden ended his 24-hour go to by paying his respects at a memorial to his good friend John McCain, the previous US Senator shot down in Hanoi as a pilot through the Vietnam Struggle.
(AFP)