US Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday witnesses the signing of a lease for a new US Embassy campus in Hà Nội. — Photo courtesy of the US Embassy in Hà Nội

HÀ NỘI — US Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday witnessed the signing of a lease for a new US Embassy campus in Hà Nội.

The project is estimated to be worth US$1.2 billion and will be located on a 3.2 ha area.

Under the witness of US Vice President Kamala Harris, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Quốc Dũng and chairman of Hà Nội People’s Committee Chu Ngọc Anh, the lease was signed by US Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Hà Nội Christopher Klein and director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment Bùi Duy Cường.

According to the US Embassy in Hà Nội, the new site is “a modern urban landscape that also reflects the city’s culture and vitality”.

The new embassy will ensure the US platform for diplomacy in Hà Nội is positioned to support — and be a symbol of — co-operation, friendship, and progress for many years to come.

The campus will be located in Cầu Giấy District.

The project has completed site selection and planning and is designed to incorporate the architectural elements, safety needs, and size requirements needed to provide a safe, secure, modern, and resilient space for US agencies and staff to carry out their work.

A ground-breaking ceremony will take place at an appropriate time in the future. 

Inspired by UNESCO World Heritage Hạ Long Bay in northeast Việt Nam, the building materials portray the forward-looking, reflective, and transparent approach to US diplomacy. Inspired by the agricultural traditions of farming and rice production, as seen in the landforms from the Mekong and Red River delta regions, the landscape connects the site with its own history as an active rice paddy field as recently as the early 2000s. — VNS