WASHINGTON, Jan 26 — New United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call with Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn on Friday, in which he urged Vietnam to address trade imbalances and also discussed shared concerns about China.
In the call, the first between the two top diplomats under the new administration of US President Donald Trump, the two hailed the 30th anniversary of US-Vietnam relations and progress made under a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership the countries agreed in 2023, a State Department statement said.
"The Secretary also discussed regional concerns to include China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea," it said.
While praising the two countries' economic cooperation, Rubio "encouraged Vietnam to address trade imbalances," it said.
The US trade deficit with Vietnam exceeded US$110 billion (RM481.8 billion) in the first 11 months of 2024, US figures released this month show, as exports from the Southeast Asian industrial hub grew amid a record fall of its currency against the dollar.
Although Vietnam has become an important US security partner, the large trade gap is seen by analysts as a major risk for the export-reliant nation amid threats from Trump of across-the-board tariffs on US imports.
The US data from this month showed a nearly 18 per cent rise in the US deficit with Vietnam compared with the same period the previous year. It confirmed the Communist-run country has the fourth highest commercial surplus with the United States, topped only by China, the European Union, and Mexico.
Trump ended his first term in the White House with Treasury declarations of Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators over their market interventions to weaken the value of their currencies.
Vietnam, which counts the US as its biggest market, is home to big export-focused industrial operations of US multinationals including Apple, Google, Nike, and Intel.
— Reuters
