ABC News, APThe powerful head of Vietnam’s Communist Party will travel to the United States for the first time next week, and said he expects President Barack Obama will visit Vietnam later this year.
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said Friday he hopes to build trust and create more opportunities to improve relations between one-time foes as they mark the 20th anniversary of normalized diplomatic ties. They are also being brought closer together by shared concerns over China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The White House said Trong would arrive on Tuesday, and the leaders would discuss trade, human rights and defense cooperation. It did not confirm a visit by Obama to Vietnam, which would be his first.
Obama is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the neighboring Philippines in November.
Trong, 71, hosted a small group of Western journalists on Friday, and his staff provided his written answers to questions posed in advance.
“Like in any relations between two countries in the world, Vietnam and the U.S. have differences on a number of issues such as perception on democracy, human rights and trade,” Trong wrote in his reply to questions from The Associated Press.
“To resolve differences, I believe the most effective way would be open and constructive dialogues to better understand each other so that differences won’t become hurdles to the overall bilateral relations,” he wrote.
Trong is one of the four most powerful figures in Vietnam, along with President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung. In theory, he is first among equals in the one-party Communist state, but the country is ruled by the party’s collective leadership, and most important decisions must be decided by a 16-member Politburo.
Trong is considered to be in the leadership’s conservative camp, tilting more toward strong ties with China.
Both Vietnam and the United States are seeking to strengthen their relationship as a way of dealing with strategic and economic challenges.
Beijing’s assertive claims in the South China Sea have put Vietnam on edge, and it is interested in having the U.S. as a counterbalance. Washington also wants closer ties with Vietnam to help offset China’s growing strength in the region.
Both countries also seek stronger economic ties, already healthy enough that Vietnam has become Southeast Asia’s biggest exporter to the U.S. They seek to benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a controversial yet-to-be-finalized trade agreement.
There are hiccups in the relationship, however.
Critics point to Vietnam’s arrests of dissidents and say that until human rights are improved, Washington should not grant too many favors, such as Vietnam’s request to purchase a range of weapons that are now currently restricted.
better idea send Obongo over there and they can live crappily ever after in some jungle anal cave. Dirt neck. We call that WOO. Waste of oxygen.
Willing to wager he feels right at home here. I vow to do anything and everything I possibly can to change that.
Birds of a feather…
Ho wanted to free his country from the French,who wouldn’t?!He had a constitution written up based almost verbatim on ours.As meetings after ww2 happened about freedom ect. he knocked on the door and was turned away.We lost a chance to have a ally close to the Chinese,perhaps as the country slowly becomes more open we should try and rebuild a relationship with em,our current and past administrations not the ones to do it well unfortunately.My uncle was the one who taught me a bit of Vietnams history when I was young,he lived there for a year as a snakedriver(one of the first units)in the 60’s.
You know, I find it funny how one group of Communists (Vietnam and the US) are teaming up against another group of Communists (China and Russia). You’d think that if they were all Communists they’d all be in line with one another, yet they are constantly fighting with each other. This constant fake game they are playing is becoming pointless because many people know that this political nonsense is all a joke. They know that the only reason they are trying to pretend they are enemies is so they can keep the sheeple believing that there is still a show going on and continue to lead them along for the ride.
It’s pathetic. When I stop and think about how this world has been led around with a rope by a group of elitists (such as the Rothschilds and Rockefellers), I just wanna vomit at how greedy and stupid people have become over the centuries. This world could have been so different and light years ahead of its time in everything, but we gave it all up in order for a small group of Zionists to deceive everyone into being a little more secure in our slave state (state as in “state of being”).