The Vietnamese negotiation delegation was led by Minister of Industry and Trade, Head of the Government negotiation delegation Nguyen Hong Dien, with the participation of members of the negotiation delegation and representatives of ministries and branches including: Public Security, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Construction, Home Affairs, Agriculture and Environment, Science and Technology, Justice and the State Bank.
On May 19, 2025 (local time, i.e. May 19 and 20, Hanoi time), the first day of the negotiation session, the Vietnam - US negotiation delegation spent time discussing the overall approach. From there, to resolve basic issues of mutual concern and speed up the negotiation process.
The two sides also exchanged openly, frankly and constructively on groups of issues of mutual concern in the direction of clarifying the contents of the Agreement's texts, providing information to each other about each side's current policies to create a basis for implementing further work.
On the same day, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien worked with Westinghouse Group, one of the world's leading corporations in nuclear power technology. At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said that Vietnam has a policy of restarting the nuclear power program to ensure energy security in the context of high electricity demand and renewable energy that is not really stable.
The Minister emphasized that Vietnam will approach it cautiously, modernly and in line with reality. The Minister shared that Vietnam currently has many potential locations for nuclear power development. This is the basis for promoting cooperation with international partners such as Westinghouse, including large-scale and small-scale nuclear power (SMR) projects.
The Minister affirmed that cooperation in energy development will also be an important driving force contributing to balancing bilateral trade balance.
Ms. Margaret Cosentino, Vice President of Westinghouse, expressed strong support for Vietnam's plan, and emphasized the importance of long-term energy cooperation.
The two sides agreed to share information, move towards signing a MOU between Westinghouse and the Vietnam National Industry - Energy Group (Petrovietnam) in the field of nuclear power development, and continue to promote cooperation. Especially in key areas such as developing energy infrastructure investment models (PPP, BOT), technology transfer as well as training and developing technical human resources to serve the nuclear power industry.
