United States President Donald Trump and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc heaped praise on each other during a meeting on the sidelines of the scheduled second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hosted by Hanoi.
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"Congratulations on your economic performance Mr. President," Nguyen said to Trump, who then credited Nguyen for the "tremendous progress" Vietnam had made since the U.S. president’s 2017 visit.
Trump also noted the significance of future purchases of U.S. military equipment, which he claims was "the best military equipment in the world by far," by the Vietnamese Government.
“Hopefully great things will happen later on,” Trump stated ahead of the historic second meeting with Kim, inferencing that Vietnam’s economic model serves as an example to be emulated by North Korea.
"We deeply appreciate the meaning of peace and reconciliation. Contributing towards peace is a responsibility of each nation in this day and age," Prime Minister Nguyen added.
“We both felt very good about having this very important summit in Vietnam because you really are an example as to what can happen, with good thinking,” Trump reaffirmed.
During a separate bilateral talk with Trump, President Nguyen Phu Trong expressed that Vietnam has "made every effort" to ensure "the best conditions for the success of this very special meeting," which hosts the second meeting to address the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear program.
Trump also lauded President Nguyen Phu Trong on “unemployment and all of the numbers that you would look at are at historically positive numbers. So I just see what you've done and I'm very proud of what you've done.”
The U.S. president, who while previously promoting the “America First” initiative had complained about trade imbalance between the two nations, inked multi-billion-dollar aviation deals to facilitate the purchase of aircraft by Vietnam airlines.