WEAI and Global Vietnam Studies Host Top Vietnamese Officials, Announce Major New Initiative Over Three Days of Visits
Weatherhead announces the Vietnam Leadership Program, a GVSP project that centers on the study of Vietnam’s economic and political development.
Above, L to R: Columbia Journalism School Dean of Academic Affairs Duy Linh Nguyen Tu; WEAI Artist in Residence Tony Bui; WEAI Senior Advisor for Vietnam Thomas J. Vallely; and WEAI Director Lien-Hang T. Nguyen with President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Luong Cuong at Lotte New York Palace hotel in New York City on Sept. 24, 2025. (Vietnam.VN)
Senior government officials from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam arrived in New York City and at Columbia last week as the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and its Global Vietnam Studies Program (GVSP) hosted Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung and President Luong Cuong for successive events from Monday, September 22 through Wednesday, September 24.
The Vietnamese leaders were in New York City for the 80th United Nations General Assembly week. Their appearances at Columbia provided the occasion for Weatherhead to announce the Vietnam Leadership Program, a GVSP project that centers on the study of Vietnam’s economic and political development.
On Tuesday, September 23, following introductions by two WEAI members, Journalism Vice Dean Duy Linh Tu and SIPA Dean Emerita Merit Janow, Acting Minister Trung met with a delegation of Columbia faculty and prominent figures in technology and business for a working luncheon co-hosted by the Journalism School. The event built on longstanding discussions between the Department of Economic Diplomacy in Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Weatherhead’s Vietnam Policy Dialogue Initiative.
Following brief remarks by Acting Minister Trung, Weatherhead Senior Adviser for Vietnam Thomas J. Vallely moderated a panel discussion among four members of the Columbia faculty including Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Ioannis Kymissis as well as four industry experts. Speakers focused on current world economic and political trends, the transition to green energy, and other technological challenges facing Vietnam’s development.
Following the panel, Acting Minister Trung reflected on the panelists’ remarks and highlighted key areas of cooperation with Columbia. In her concluding remarks, Weatherhead Director Professor Lien-Hang T. Nguyen announced the Vietnam Leadership Program—an iteration of the Institute’s Vietnam Executive Leadership Program that was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding signed during General Secretary To Lam’s visit to Columbia in September 2024.
Professor Nguyen ended the event by thanking the Acting Minister and the day’s other participants and acknowledged the support of founding donors to the new Vietnam Leadership Program, among them Amazon Web Services and MoMo, the mobile payment app.
The following afternoon, September 24, the Weatherhead East Asia Institute and the Global Vietnam Studies Program received President Cuong and members of his staff.
The President thanked Professor Nguyen for her work establishing and expanding Vietnam Studies at Columbia over the past decade. President Cuong noted that GVSP makes a significant contribution to bilateral relations between Vietnam and the US, exemplifying how cooperation in education and professional development has been an especially productive area of collaboration since the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023.
For President Cuong’s benefit, Professor Nguyen and other members of the Global Vietnam Studies faculty sketched out some of their ambitions for Vietnam Studies at Columbia (ambitions that include additional partnering with higher education institutions in Vietnam) and discussed their teaching as it relates to Vietnamese history, language, and culture. Several attendees also expressed their appreciation to the president of a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Vietnam’s Independence Day that was held two days earlier at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art under the creative directorship of WEAI Artist in Residence Tony Bui.
The talk then turned to GVSP’s Vietnam Policy Dialogue Initiative, a series of engagements with Vietnamese government at the central and local levels that supports the domestic policy reforms that will propel Vietnam toward a 21st-century economy. The new Vietnam Leadership Program, announced the day prior, furthers the work of the Policy Dialogue Initiative.
Above: Ambassador Đỗ Hùng Việt, Vietnam’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and WEAI Director Lien-Hang T. Nguyen (center), at the commemoration of Vietnam’s Independence Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Sept. 22, 2025, held under the creative direction of filmmaker Tony Bui (far left).
Coverage in Vietnamese media:
Vietnam.VN, Sept. 24, 2025
(We thank both outlets for permission to reuse photographs #1 and #2, above.)