Hanoi: Vietnam’s Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien held meetings with key U.S. companies including Excelerate Energy, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and Google during his visit to Washington for ongoing tariff talks with the Trump administration, state media reported on Wednesday.
According to Vietnam News Agency, the purpose of these high-level discussions is to demonstrate to U.S. President Donald Trump Vietnam’s commitment to strengthening bilateral ties and encouraging increased U.S. investment in the country.
“The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and the U.S. has been strongly promoting and creating favourable conditions for U.S. companies to invest and do business smoothly in Vietnam,” Dien stated during the meetings.
This week marks the second round of trade negotiations in Washington as Vietnam, a key manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia, aims to avoid the imposition of a threatened 46% tariff on its exports to the United States.
Highlighting strategic cooperation, Dien expressed interest in deepening ties with Lockheed Martin, especially as Vietnam plans to launch a new-generation communication satellite by late next year. Previous discussions have also considered Lockheed Martin’s potential sale of C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft to Hanoi.
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In a meeting with SpaceX government affairs official Tim Hughes, Dien praised the company’s planned $1.5 billion investment in Starlink satellite services in Vietnam. He encouraged SpaceX to broaden its investment footprint to sectors such as clean energy, information technology, and high-tech training.
During talks with executives from Excelerate Energy, Dien emphasized that the company’s initiative to supply American liquefied natural gas (LNG) aligns with Vietnam’s long-term energy development strategy.
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Vietnam has recently introduced measures aimed at reducing its significant trade surplus with the U.S., which exceeded $123 billion last year. These efforts include lowering tariffs on American goods and curbing the transit of Chinese products through Vietnamese territory destined for the U.S.
Additionally, Vietnam’s finance ministry announced plans by Vietnamese companies to establish logistics centers and an industrial park in the United States, aiming to facilitate bilateral trade and investment flows.
