(PatriotWise.com)- During the weekend summit conference between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Washington, D.C., two Vietnamese officials were captured on tape sneering at US President Joe Biden. Before it was taken down from the US State Department’s YouTube page, the video purportedly went viral.
News reports captured Southeast Asia analyst Nguyen Phuong Linh’s series of tweets on the event. Linh described the footage showing the Vietnamese delegation laughing after US President Joe Biden informed Prime Minister Chinh that he couldn’t trust Russia. Chinh also said the discussion with Biden was straightforward and fair and that Vietnam isn’t frightened of anybody, adding that they put Biden into checkmate. Public Security Minister Lam is also shown complimenting Matthew Pottinger, the former deputy national security advisor under Trump, for being young and brilliant, as well as having a Vietnamese wife.
The members also referred to several US officials without utilizing honorific phrases that should be used in formal contexts in the Vietnamese language. The video, according to analyst Nguyen Phuong Linh, might be seen as proof of a dysfunctional Vietnamese cabinet and leadership ineptitude in terms of communications, foreign affairs, and security.
According to the BBC’s Bill Hayton, the State Department’s inexplicable removal of the video from YouTube was embarrassing for the Vietnamese. Radio Free Asia reported that Vietnamese social media users were shocked by the bad manners.
On Saturday, the State Department released a summary of Chinh’s meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which did not mention the video controversy.
The summary showed that the solid US-ASEAN partnership was praised by Secretary Blinken. He emphasized the United States’ robust Comprehensive Partnership with Vietnam, as well as the United States’ support for ASEAN centrality, the Mekong-US Partnership, and a strong, wealthy, and independent Vietnam. The Secretary of State and the Prime Minister talked about measures to expand and enhance security cooperation, trade and economic connections, and climate-change collaboration.
According to international press reports, Vietnam had a blissful week after lifting the last of its coronavirus testing restrictions on Saturday, much to the pleasure of visitors and investors anxious to visit the country.
