US Secretary of State, John Kerry, met with Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi on Friday as part of his final trip abroad before leaving office, local media reported.
Kerry’s trip, which is his fourth to Vietnam in his current role as the top US diplomat, included a talk with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc after his arrival late on Thursday.
The trip is seen as mostly symbolic, as the US prepares for the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
“It is mostly a farewell tour,” Murray Hiebert, an expert on South-East Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said.
The expert said: “Kerry won’t be offering any new proposals on bilateral ties less than a week before he leaves office.”
Kerry is not scheduled to meet with Communist Party Secretary General Trong, Vietnam’s de-facto head of government, as the leader is currently on a state visit to China.
A Vietnam War veteran, Kerry first came to the country as a US Navy patrol boat commander in 1968.
He is scheduled to visit Ca Mau province in the Mekong Delta, where he saw combat in the late 1960s, on Saturday according to the report.
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