US President Donald Trump will visit Vietnam later this year for a regional summit.
Reuters reports that US Vice President Mike Pence shared during a visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) headquarters in Jakarta that Trump will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Da Nang.
Scheduled for November 6-11, the APEC Economic Leaders' Week will bring together heads of state from around the Pacific Rim.
Trump will also attend the US-ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit in the Philippines, the news source shares.
The announcement follows Trump's December phone call to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a letter the US leader sent to President Tran Dai Quang in February, according to VnExpress.
Trump expressed a desire to promote bilateral cooperation and strengthen ties between the two countries.
Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VnExpress: "The most important outcome of the trip is that it will give Trump his first opportunity to meet many of the leaders of the 21 APEC economies and engage some key business executives from these countries."
He added: "It will give him an opportunity to explain how the US will engage the Asia-Pacific on trade and investment, including any initiatives the US may want to propose after dropping out of the TPP [Trans Pacific Partnership]."
[Photo via ABC News]
