Dr. Bob Roberts and the Minister of Ethnic and Religious Affairs (MERA) Nguyen Dinh Kang 

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 15, 2026 –  The Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) was honored to receive a delegation from Vietnam led by the Minister of Ethnic and Religious Affairs (MERA) Nguyen Dinh Kang at its Washington, DC office. Delegation members included the MERA vice minister, Vietnam’s ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Dzung, Governmental Committee for Religious Affairs officials, Ministry of Public Security officials, and three pastors from both registered and unregistered churches in Hanoi. 

IGE president Bob Roberts and Minister Nguyen discussed potential areas of collaboration, including training programs on religion and rule of law and fostering partnerships between American and Vietnamese churches on serving the community. The meeting reflected a shared commitment to continuing and deepening IGE’s work of building religious freedom in Vietnam through practical partnerships with government and faith communities. 

The Vietnamese delegation has been visiting different cities in the U.S. at the invitation of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to experience firsthand how religious freedom works in the U.S. In addition to Washington, DC, the delegation has also visited North Carolina,  Lancaster, PA, and Texas.

About the Institute for Global Engagement – Since 2001, IGE has worked with both government and faith leaders to build religious freedom in Vietnam. IGE has now trained more than 6,000 Vietnamese scholars, government officials, policy advisers, faith leaders, and security personnel on good governance and religion, religious rights, international standards of religious freedom, religious freedom in Vietnam, reconciliation, and the implications of Vietnam’s 2016 Law on Belief and Religion. For more information about IGE’s work in Vietnam, please contact Ms. Hien Vu, Vietnam Program Manager, at hvu@globalengage.org.

Photography credit to Logan Ryan, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

For more information about the delegation’s U.S. visit:

Vietnam Delegation’s D.C. and Texas Visit Advances Path to Historic BGEA Hanoi Festival 

Vietnam Sends Special Delegation to Meet With Franklin Graham and Advance Christian Freedom 

Franklin Graham meets with top Vietnamese gov’t official who vows to ‘promote religious freedom’