Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sept. 26 discussed measures to beef up bilateral partnership between the two countries towards strategic partnership.

Although a good part of Americans, especially elder Americans, know of Viet Nam through the long and bloody war, the best motto that describes the country is: “Viet Nam is a country, not a war”. Coined by a senior Vietnamese diplomat well before the normalization of relations between Viet Nam and the U.S., the well-known phrase has been increasingly reflecting the true image of Viet Nam in the U.S. nowadays. Viet Nam and the U.S. established diplomatic relations on July 12, 1995. In August 1995, both countries upgraded their Liaison Offices opened in January 1995 to Embassy status. The two countries then exchanged Ambassadors in May 1997, opening up a new chapter in their relationship.