The panorama of the meeting
In the meeting, Minister Nguyen Quan and Ambassador David Shear both said that relations between Vietnam and the US have experienced remarkable changes in recent years. Cooperation in diplomatic fields as economics, trade and others has been increasingly strengthened.
Ambassador David Shear said that Vietnam and the US have shifted to a new chapter in S&T cooperation between the two countries when negotiations on Agreement 123 on nuclear energy are going to take place. The Ambassador hoped the negotiations would achieve useful results for both the US and Vietnam. In the economic field, the two countries have negotiated on the Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). According to the Ambassador, if the negotiations on this Agreement are complete, it would be certain that economic cooperation between Vietnam and the US would be improved at a new level. The Ambassador also expressed his hopes to cooperate with MOST, contributing to development friendships and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.
Minister Nguyen Quan thanked the Ambassador’s ideas. According to the Minister, coming negotiations on Agreement 123 would show the US’s reliability on Vietnam’s atomic energy development for peaceful purposes, creating favorable conditions for Vietnam to build the first nuclear power plants. In this cooperation program, Vietnam has paid special attention to training for human resources in the nuclear technique field to be able to take over and operate safely the nuclear power plant.
For the TPP Agreement, the Minister said that the issue of intellectual property has been mentioned in the Agreement. This is the issue which Vietnam has paid significant attention. The Minister also shared with the Ambassador about difficulties in this issue as well as Vietnam’s participation in the TPP Agreement.
Regarding the cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and NASA has recently signed the joint statement on cooperation ideas in civil aeronautics and space activities. The Minister said that MOST as the Chair of Vietnam Space Committee would have guidelines as well as supports for VAST in the cooperation program on space study with NASA.
Minister Nguyen Quan thanked the Ambassador for his visit to MOST and expressed his desires that MOST would continue to have the Ambassador’s consideration and close coordination so that S&T cooperation activities between the two parties would be strongly promoted for the coming time.