President Joe Biden hailed an upgrade in the U.S.-Vietnam relationship on Sunday, the latest step in Washington’s efforts to enhance its strategic links with Southeast Asian nations that act as a bulwark against rising Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

Speaking at a news conference in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Sunday evening local time, the president said the United States had “strengthened our ties with another critical Indo-Pacific partner,” after Vietnam officially confirmed it would elevate its relationship with Washington to the top level of the country’s three-tier hierarchy for bilateral relations.

Biden added that the United States is “a Pacific nation, and we’re not going anywhere,” a statement that appeared intended to put China on notice.

The news conference came after Biden met with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at the party headquarters in Hanoi. The general secretary, speaking through a translator, welcomed Biden and talked about how their meeting would be an important chance to improve cooperation.

“Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community,” Biden said at the meeting.

Human rights activists have accused the U.S. government of casting aside its professed commitment to promoting democracy and human rights abroad in favor of shoring up U.S. dominance in the region. Vietnam continues to be one of the most authoritarian countries in Southeast Asia, and Trong’s government has waged an especially harsh crackdown on dissent and activism in recent years.

Some tension over Vietnam’s track record on human rights was detectable: Although Biden mentioned he brought up the issue, Trong stressed the importance of “noninterference in domestic affairs.”

Vietnam is among the few Southeast Asian nations that have publicly pushed back against China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, and a statement from its Central Foreign Affairs Committee said Trong had told Biden that his country “highly appreciates” U.S. support for the interests of Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia there.

At the news conference, which took place about 90 minutes later than expected, several questions from reporters centered on America’s relationship with China, including accusations by Beijing that the United States has a “Cold War” mentality amid recent investment restrictions and heightened tensions over technology access.

“I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said. “I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up-and-up and squared away.”

He added that he had not spoken to President Xi Jinping of China in months, saying that Xi was busy dealing with domestic issues. “Look, this is not a criticism,” he said. “It’s an observation. He has his hands full right now.”

During his remarks, Biden twice referred to the “Third World” in his answers, verbiage that many people in developing countries consider offensive. The first time, he quickly corrected himself to say he was referring to the “Global South” and in the second instance, he said “the southern hemisphere.”

Biden traveled to Hanoi on Sunday from India, where he had been attending the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi. At the meeting, he and other leaders of the group released a declaration that omitted any condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or its brutal conduct of the war, instead lamenting the “suffering” of the Ukrainian people.

In Hanoi, Biden suggested that the declaration could not have been stronger because Russia and China are both members of the G20 group, but said the leaders had agreed to “the need for justice for just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.

As the news conference concluded, the president told reporters he wanted to go to bed, before starting to answer another question. An aide came on the loudspeaker, interrupting the president, to say the news conference was over.

The New York Times News Service