Vietnam's top leader Lam to visit US, Cuba next week

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam's president and ruling Communist Party chief To Lam will pay a working visit to the United States next week and participate in the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the government said on Thursday.

After that, Lam will pay an official visit to Cuba, Vietnam's long-term communist partner.

Lam's visit will take place from Sept. 21 to Sept. 27, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said, without giving a specific timeframe for Lam's visits to each country.

Reuters on Tuesday reported that during his U.S. visit, Lam will deliver a speech at the UN event and meet representatives from several U.S. corporations, including Alphabet's Google and Facebook owner Meta.

Neither the foreign ministry spokesperson nor a separate government statement said whether Lam would meet U.S. President Biden during the U.S. trip.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Gareth Jones and Sharon Singleton)