HANOI, Vietnam -- GENERAL SECRETARY TRONG: (Via interpreter) Mr. State Secretary, welcome to Vietnam. It is a great pleasure to have you here in Vietnam and I understand that although this isn’t – it’s very short in duration, but it is a very important one. Once again, welcome to Vietnam.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. It is an honor to be here, sir. Thank you for hosting me, and it is true I don’t get to spend very long here, but I very much wanted to come here. You are an important partner to America, and I wanted to come here and share that thought.

GENERAL SECRETARY TRONG: (Via interpreter) Mr. State Secretary, how many times have you visited Vietnam?

SECRETARY POMPEO: This is my first time to visit Vietnam.

GENERAL SECRETARY TRONG: (Via interpreter) So I understand that this is your first visit to Vietnam in the capacity of the State Secretary of the United States of America. And your visit this time, a follow-up to the President’s visit last time to Vietnam, who I had the chance of hosting here, I believe that they all will help further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries. So I wish you a successful visit to Vietnam.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you very much. President Trump asked me to share his greetings with you as well. I know Secretary Mattis was here; he said the same. They both had wonderful visits and are both deeply committed to the relationship between our two countries.

GENERAL SECRETARY TRONG: (Via interpreter) Well, the two countries normalized our relations many years back, and since then we have made very good progress in many areas. Today we have become (inaudible) partners. And Vietnam has much more (inaudible) to relations with the United States since the United States has considered (inaudible).