Vietnam's top party leader expected to visit US next month

US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (L) poses for a photo with Vietnam's Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the Party's headquaters in Hanoi June 1, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

HO CHI MINH CITY -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong is expected to visit the United States next month, local Saigon Times Daily reported on Wednesday.

US Ambassador Ted Osius told the newspaper that US leaders were looking forward to the first visit by a Vietnamese top party leader as the two countries will put forth a common vision. As one of the people who were arranging Trong's visit, the ambassador said he expected the trip to happen in July.

His visit comes 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War and 20 years since the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

Regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), he said the signing of the agreement might take place this summer. Osius said the US Senate had passed the Trade Promotion Authority bill which now went to the House.

The legislation would give Congress the authority to vote for or against, but not amend or filibuster, international trade agreements negotiated by the White House, such as the TPP. If both chambers pass it, the TPP could be signed in the summer, Osius said.

The ambassador hoped Vietnam's exports to the United States would grow strongly this year. Exports will jump further and there will be more opportunities for Vietnam to export more farm produce stateside, especially fruit, after the TPP is signed.

The US ambassador delivered a speech at Can Tho University in the southern city of Can Tho on Monday and visited a US-funded wind power project in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.