By Francesco Guarascio<\/p>\n
HANOI, Sept 4 (Reuters) \u2013 Vietnam\u2019s leader To Lam is planning to visit Russia, France, the United States and Canada this month, several people familiar with the plans said, as the Communist-ruled country seeks to deepen ties with major \u200bpartners to combat trade uncertainty\u00a0hanging over its export-reliant economy.<\/p>\n
The pace of high-profile overseas \u200ctrips is exceptional even for To Lam, Vietnam\u2019s President and the General Secretary of the Communist Party, who has travelled extensively and hosted several foreign leaders since taking power in 2024.<\/p>\n
The visits inflate\u00a0a packed\u00a0September schedule, which includes a meeting in Hanoi this weekend with Myanmar\u2019s President Min\u00a0Aung Hlaing and follows state visits to Australia and \u200cNew \u200bZealand last month. In October, he is expected to return \u2060to Europe, where he could meet \u2060EU leaders in Brussels as part of a broader trip, according to three people informed about the plans.<\/p>\n
None of the planned state visits has been officially announced and the schedule is subject to change.<\/p>\n
Vietnam\u2019s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for \u200bcomment.<\/p>\n
RUSSIA FIRST, THEN FRANCE<\/p>\n
To Lam is set to begin in Russia on September 7, meeting President Vladimir Putin, before travelling to France to meet Emmanuel Macron, three sources said.<\/p>\n
One official \u2060familiar with the Moscow visit said the trip aims \u2060to build political trust in areas including energy, defence and security. \u200bRussia remains Vietnam\u2019s top arms supplier and is involved in nuclear power and South China Sea gas \u200bprojects, including in waters also claimed by China, though Hanoi has been \u200cdiversifying its military sourcing.<\/p>\n
In France, Lam is expected to attend the International Space Summit in Paris on September 9 to 10two sources said.<\/p>\n
Airbus Defence and Space signed a space cooperation declaration with Vietnam during Macron\u2019s visit last year, one of several multibillion-dollar agreements, although many of them are \u2060non-binding. French firms are also eyeing Vietnam\u2019s railway, airport and defence projects.<\/p>\n
UN SPEECH, CANADA VISIT<\/p>\n
After a brief return home, To Lam will travel to the U.S. where he is expected to speak \u2060at the United Nations General Assembly\u2019s \u200chigh-level debate starting on September 21, three sources said.<\/p>\n
None of the \u2060sources had information about a possible meeting with U.S. President Donald \u200bTrump.<\/p>\n
A White \u200cHouse official said that Trump\u2019s schedule for those days has \u200bnot been finalised.<\/p>\n
U.S.-Vietnam \u2060ties have been strained by Trump\u2019s push to cut trade imbalances even as Vietnamese exports to the\u00a0U.S. hit record highs. The two leaders briefly met in February, when Lam joined Trump\u2019s \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d initiative.<\/p>\n
From the United States, To Lam is expected to head to neighbouring Canada beginning on September 24, one of the sources said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; \u200bEditing by Saad Sayeed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Francesco Guarascio HANOI, Sept 4 (Reuters) \u2013 Vietnam\u2019s leader To Lam is planning to visit Russia, France,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-835769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}