The video recording of a short conversation between Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other officials at the US State Department on May 13 is no longer found on the US State Department’s YouTube channel for unknown reasons.
The conversation between the Vietnamese PM and other high-ranking officials including Minister of Public Security To Lam and Deputy Defense Minister Pham Hoai Nam took place before the meeting between the Vietnamese delegation and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and was recorded in its entirety by the staff of the US State Department, and streamed live on the Department’s YouTube channel.
The remarkable point in this five-minute talk is the rude way of speaking of Vietnamese officials. Minister of Public Security To Lam when referring to the former Deputy National Security Advisor of the United States under President Donald Trump, Mr. Matthew Pottinger, called him “a guy.”
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh rudely said: “Clearly, fair. Mother it! There’s nothing to be afraid of…”
The video immediately went viral on social media and received many comments from the online community.
A viewer of this video on RFA’s Facebook, named Kien Nguyen, wrote: “Being a guest at someone’s house and talking behind the host’s back is uneducated and goddamn.”
Another person named Le Minh Hoang wrote: “These sayings… Thought they were on some kind of table….not at the senior diplomatic level. This is how the politician represents Vietnam.”
Another person named Hoa Nguyen wrote: “Words!!! From the prime minister’s mouth, it sounds like in a bus station.”
By the evening of May 14, US Eastern time, when viewers clicked on this video on the YouTube channel of the US Department of State, they were told “Video unavailable.”
On Twitter, former BBC journalist Bill Hayton wrote: “It was so embarrassing for the Vietnamese delegation that the US State Department seemed to have to take down the video.”
This is not the first time that leading officials of the Vietnamese Government have encountered “noticeable” diplomatic incidents while on business trips abroad.
Last October, Minister of Public Security To Lam, when accompanying Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to attend the Climate Summit in the UK, came to eat gilded beef at the famous restaurant of Turkish chef Salt. Bae. It was said that the meal costs about $1,975 on average. It is worth noting that Mr. To Lam went to eat an expensive meal while in Vietnam there was a COVID-19 pandemic and many people were locked down for months, without jobs and income. This meal of Minister To Lam attracted the attention of the international press and called the beef that Mr. To Lam ate “Communist Beef.”
The video of Minister To Lam eating gilded beef was also uploaded to TikTok by chef Salt Bae and spread on social networks, but soon it was no longer found on the famous chef’s TikTok account.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
