Obama's upcoming visit to Vietnam important: U.S. official

U.S. President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Vietnam is one of the most important diplomatic events of the United State in 2016, said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.

Blinken made the remark while meeting with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi.

Through the visit, Obama expected to strengthen the comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam and learn more about the country's culture, history and people, said the U.S. official.

Blinken and Minh discussed measures to strengthen cooperation in the future, especially coordination between the two foreign ministries to prepare for the U.S. president's visit in May.

During the meeting, Blinken said Washington will continue working with Hanoi to beef up cooperation in such areas as trade, investment, climate change adaptation, education and training, maritime security and dealing with war consequences.

The U.S. official also highly valued Vietnam's determination to engage in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and to ratify the trade deal, according to the Vietnamese government.

The Vietnamese official, for his part, urged the two sides to further enhance cooperation in the nine areas stated in the Joint Statement in 2013, considering development cooperation as a key pillar.

At the meeting, the two sides reviewed the progress of bilateral ties since Vietnamese party chief Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to the United States last July.