The four senators were Jim Risch and Cory Gardner from the Republican Party, and democrats Bob Menendez and Ed Markey who is the chairman and a ranking member of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.
They expressed their hopes that Vietnam will exercise its leadership and cooperate with its ASEAN partners in the coming year, especially as ASEAN and China negotiate a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). ASEAN is an important partner of the US, the senators said, stressing their commitments to deepening this relationship starting with the US-ASEAN Special Summit.
