Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet will visit the
United States from Monday to Saturday, which is expected to bring
about considerable socioeconomic gains to Vietnam.
Triet will become the first Vietnamese head of state to tour
Washington since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. He is
scheduled to hold talks with US President George W. Bush in
Washington on Friday, and meet with leaders of the US Senate and
the House of Representatives, and representatives of US firms and
Vietnamese people living in the United States.
"I plan to discuss with President Bush and other US leaders
specific measures to strengthen the effectiveness and stability in
the Vietnam-US relationship. I will meet with US residents as well
as overseas Vietnamese who are living in the United States in order
to strengthen the friendship between the two peoples and boost the
mutual understanding and sympathy between the two nations," he told
local media on Thursday.
According to local analysts, Triet's visit has three main
purposes.
First, beefing up bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
During the trip, the two sides are expected to ink a trade and
investment framework agreement (TIFA) and some economic deals. The
TIFA is a platform on which they will work to further strengthen
their trade and investment ties.
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The two sides are also actively preparing for signing a contract on
buying airplanes during the trip, but the results depend on
negotiations between the Vietnam Airlines and US Boeing Company,
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said Thursday.
Concerning trade, Vietnam and the United States have seen
noteworthy improvements since the taking effect of their bilateral
trade agreement (BTA) in late 2001, a milestone marking the full
normalization between the two countries, with two-way trade soaring
to US$9.7 billion in 2006 from US$1.4 billion in 2001.
However, the United States' application of anti-dumping taxes on
Vietnamese catfish and shrimps are slowing down the local exports,
and the BTA has not created an investment boom as the two sides
wished with US investors having poured and committed over US$2.3
billion into Vietnam so far, ranking the 8th biggest foreign
investor in the country.
Therefore, the upcoming historic trip by Triet, to be
accompanied by a large number of officials and representatives from
leading Vietnamese companies, is a good chance for Vietnam to
implement investment promotion and draw investment, especially in
fields in which US firms have prominent strengths like high
technology.
"I welcome US entrepreneurs to do business in Vietnam. The
Government of Vietnam will continue to create a favorable
environment and conditions for foreign investors to operate in the
country," Triet said.
Second, speeding up process of solving issues left by the war,
including local victims of Agent Orange, and narrowing some
differences, especially those related to democracy and human
rights.
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The United States has agreed to help Vietnam in strengthening Agent
Orange detoxification. In February, the United States announced to
fund Vietnam US$400,000 for dioxin detoxification in the Da Nang
Airport in central Da Nang city " This is the first positive
initial step in implementing the Vietnam-US Joint Statement signed
in 2006," Le Dung said.
On June 18, the first day of Triet's visit to the United States,
a federal appeals court in New York will hear arguments on whether
or not Vietnamese Agent Orange victims are eligible for suing 32 US
chemical companies which produced dioxin-containing Agent Orange"
defoliant sprayed by the US army in the Vietnam War.
According to studies of US scientists, the US army dropped some
80 million liters of defoliants, mostly Agent Orange, which
contained nearly 400 kilograms of dioxin, an extremely toxic
substance, to Vietnam between 1961 and 1971, said the Vietnam
Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin. Some 4.8 million
Vietnamese people have so far been exposed to Agent Orange, of whom
some 3 million are victims, said the association.
Third, continuing to call for the Vietnamese community in the
United States, over 1.5 million people or half of the number of
Vietnamese living abroad, to better understand the situation in
Vietnam, not conducting activities which are contrary to its
interest, and to make stronger contributions to its
development.
"Thousands of overseas Vietnamese with their assets in the
United States have selected their home country for investment and
business operations and they have invested thousands of billions of
Vietnamese dong (dozens of million dollars) in Vietnam. I would
like to praise those experts and academics who have made
intellectual contributions to national construction, and cooperated
with their colleagues inside the country in scientific research,
training and experience exchange," Triet told local media on
Thursday.
Besides the three main purposes, some analysts said that Triet's
visit also aims to foster Vietnam-US military cooperation ties
which have focused on dealing with the war's aftermath for a long
time, and have recently been expanded to a new domain of personnel
training.
From narrow dimension of cooperation on humanity, Vietnam and
the United States have expanded it into such important fields as
politics, economy, healthcare, education, science and technology,
and most recently - military, anti-terrorism, drug trafficking and
transnational crimes. The two countries are showing readiness to
bring their ties to a new height towards stable and long-term
cooperation, and multi-faceted, constructive and friendly
partnership.
(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2007)
