Vietnam's Top Leader Visits US Amid Trade Tensions and China Shadow, Lacking Official White House Invitation

Vietnam's top leader, Tô Lâm, General Secretary of the Communist Party and President, is scheduled to visit the United States from September 20-25. During his trip, he will deliver a speech at the UN General Assembly and engage in bilateral meetings. However, there is no official meeting with US President Donald Trump on the current agenda, nor has an official invitation from the White House been confirmed. This marks Tô Lâm's third visit to the US since assuming the role of Party General Secretary in August 2024. While he has met with President Trump at the White House previously, those were not official state visits. It remains uncertain whether a formal meeting will take place this time. Political observer Vũ Đức Khanh suggests that Tô Lâm's visit may be overshadowed by potential meetings between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Professor Alexander Vuving of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies speculates that the upcoming US midterm elections and numerous unresolved bilateral issues could be contributing factors to the lack of an official visit. A significant concern for the US is Vietnam's substantial trade surplus. In the first half of 2026, Vietnam emerged as the largest source of trade surplus for the US, a situation that Washington views critically. Vietnam is attempting to address this imbalance through trade agreement negotiations and increased purchases of US goods and services. Furthermore, the US has initiated several trade investigations against Vietnam concerning issues such as excess production capacity, forced labor, and intellectual property rights violations. The Vietnamese government is reportedly taking steps to combat counterfeiting, improve labor standards, and address these concerns. Some analysts believe that a potential meeting between the two leaders could occur during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2027, which Vietnam is set to host. Tô Lâm's current US visit is seen as a crucial juncture for Vietnam's export-oriented economy, with the future of its trade relations with the US under close scrutiny. Source: BBC Vietnamese