HANOI: US President Joe Biden hailed closer ties with Vietnam on Sunday as the two countries struck a deal to deepen relations and cooperation on strategic supplies in the face of growing competition from China.

Biden flew from the G20 summit in New Delhi to meet the leader of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, to sign off on a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, Hanoi’s highest level of diplomatic ties.

The goal of the short visit mirrors Biden’s time at the G20 gathering — shoring up support against China’s increasing diplomatic influence, while securing supplies of strategically important resources from friendly countries.

“This can be the beginning of even a greater era of cooperation,” Biden said as he met Trong, Vietnam’s paramount leader.

“Vietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time.”

The deal puts the United States on a par with China — as well as Russia, India and South Korea — in the Vietnamese hierarchy of diplomatic relations.

“We’re deepening our cooperation on critical emerging technologies, particularly around building a more resilient semiconductor supply chain,” Biden said.

Trong thanked Biden for his contribution to improving US-Vietnamese ties and said his country would work hard to implement the new agreement.

Jon Finer, the US deputy national security advisor, told reporters ahead of Biden’s arrival that talks would also cover supplies of rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of high-tech devices such as smartphones and electric car batteries. The United States has said Vietnam — with the world’s second-largest deposits of rare earths after China — has a key role to play as it looks to source less from China after supply chain shocks rocked the global economy in recent years.