U.S., Vietnam partnership raised to top level during Biden’s visit

The United States and Vietnam on Sunday agreed to elevate their relations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” -- the Southeast Asian country’s highest diplomatic ranking, on par with what it has with China and Russia.

The upgrade from the “comprehensive partnership” formed a decade ago, skipping the “strategic partnership” phase, was announced following U.S. President Joe Biden’s talks with Vietnam’s most powerful leader, the Communist Party’s General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, in Hanoi.

“I think we have an enormous opportunity,” Biden told Trong at the Vietnamese ruling party’s headqu...