Vietnamese Premier Meets With Bush, Gates

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
June 25, 2008
Pg. 2
Topics Include Economic Policy, Religious Freedom
By Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff Writer
President Bush met with the prime minister of Vietnam yesterday to discuss closer ties on trade and greater religious freedom, signifying another step forward in the slow warming of relations between the United States and its communist former enemy.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also made an unusual trek across the Potomac River to the Pentagon, where he met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to discuss closer military cooperation between the nations.
Dung is the highest-level Vietnamese official to visit the Pentagon since the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the fall of South `Vietnam in 1975, according to a Defense Department spokesman. Dung is also the third high-level Vietnamese official to visit the White House during Bush's presidency.
"Our relationship with Vietnam is getting closer, in a spirit of respect," Bush said after meeting with Dung in the Oval Office. "And I thank you for coming to help make that relationship even stronger."
Yesterday's visit came one year after Bush made a brief visit to Hanoi, and underscores the balancing act by the United States as it seeks to open Vietnam to U.S. trade while prodding the country to improve its record on human rights. The United States began normalizing relations with Vietnam in 1995, followed by a presidential visit by Bill Clinton in 2000.
One persistent concern is religion, which remains controlled by the state in the mostly Buddhist country. Two years ago, Vietnam was removed from a State Department list of countries that stifle religious freedoms, but some human rights groups have recently said it should be returned to the roster because of continuing problems.
Bush indicated yesterday that he disagrees. "I told the prime minister that I thought the strides the government is making towards religious freedom is noteworthy," he said.
Derek Mitchell, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said U.S. officials treat religious freedom and other human rights concerns as part of broader negotiations with Vietnam that are focused on improving trade and economic ties.
"It's being dealt with in a way similar to China, which is as part of a dialogue and not front and center," Mitchell said. "It's a very careful, step-by-step move forward in the relationship, but each step is substantial."
Dung, appearing alongside Bush, said they agreed to launch negotiations for a bilateral investment agreement, to increase high-level talks on other issues, and to establish a task force to increase educational ties between the two countries. He referred to the "rapid development in the Vietnam-U.S. relationship toward a friendly and constructive partnership."
Also yesterday, Bush said the United States is sending an aircraft carrier and other Navy vessels in response to the devastating typhoon that struck the Philippines over the weekend.
After meeting at the White House with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Bush expressed "our deep condolences to those who suffered" as a result of Typhoon Fengshen. The storm has left more than 1,000 people dead or missing and caused damage estimated at more than $96 million.
 
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