President Vo Van Thuong receives US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in San Francisco on November 16. — VNA/VNS Photo

SAN FRANCISCO — President Võ Văn Thưởng received US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in San Francisco on November 16 during his trip to the US to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week and bilateral activities.

President Thưởng hailed efforts by the two countries in realising the high-level agreements reached during the Việt Nam visit by President Joe Biden, making the bilateral partnership more substantial and stable.

He welcomed the US to strengthen cooperation with Việt Nam, especially in the fields that Kerry pays attention to such as climate change response and energy transition.

The Vietnamese State leader highly valued the efforts of President Biden and the special envoy in enhancing the awareness and actions to deal with climate change, affirming that Việt Nam wants to foster collaboration with the US in this field in a way that suits Viet Nam’s socio-economic conditions and meets the interest of people of the two countries.

Energy transition must ensure the principle of equality, he said, underlining that Việt Nam has continued to implement overall and drastic measures to promote green growth and climate change mitigation, including the approval of the National Power Development Planning for the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2050, which aims to switch from the use of fossil fuels to renewable and new energy towards the net-zero emission target by 2050.

President Thưởng also noted his hope that the US side will continue to create more favourable conditions for the implementation of projects to support energy transition and optimise the renewable energy potential in Việt Nam, contributing to ensuring long-term energy security.

For his part, Kerry affirmed that the US always values relations with Việt Nam and supports the Southeast Asian country in playing an active and practical role in the region.

The US will continue to assist Việt Nam in enhancing its capacity in climate change adaptation, pollution control and sustainable management of resources, while assisting the country in exploiting and using existing resources in an environmentally friendly manner at a reasonable cost in order to reduce the dependence on imported fuels, he pledged.

The US will also support Việt Nam in improving its management capacity in the field of environment, he added.

The US official hailed Việt Nam’s prompt action in consulting international partners to finalise the Resource Mobilisation Plan (RMP) for the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) in the next 3-5 years right after adopting the Political Declaration on establishing the JETP.

Kerry emphasised that the US is ready to conduct high-level cooperation with Việt Nam to ensure that the 28th UN Climate Conference (COP28) will produce positive results.

He affirmed that as a longtime friend of Việt Nam, he will continue to advocate support for resilience building for vulnerable communities in the Mekong Delta. — VNS