The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrives in Hanoi yesterday’s morning for a two-day visit, said she wishes to see the bilateral relations to be expanded and become stronger and deeper.
Hillary’s trip to the Southeast Asian country this time, the second one after her first arrival in 2000 as President Bill Clinton’s wife, is to mark the 15th anniversary of diplomatic ties and to attend the 17th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF 17) to take place today.
Achievements by both countries over the past 15 years are important preparations to raise the bilateral ties to a new height as defined by President Barrack Obama, Clinton told her counterpart Pham Gia Khiem during their two-hour talks.
The U.S.-Vietnam relations is significant not only for the two countries but also for Washington Administration’s strategy to raise its involvement in Asia-Pacific particularly in the Southeast Asian region, the Secretary of State was quoted as saying.
During the talks, Hillary and Khiem exchanged their views on security challenges facing the region, including Myanmar politics, the Korean peninsula’s situation and territorial disputes on the East Sea.
Hillary Clinton told the Vietnamnet that like countries worldwide, the U.S. and Vietnam have differences in many fields, from history to culture. But, she said “we have had good dialogues on the differences”.
She took the occasion to raise concern on the issues of human rights, religion and Internet freedom in Vietnam.
Prior to the trip, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based international non-governmental organization specialized in research and advocacy on human rights, said the U.S. Secretary of State should take advantage of her visit to press Hanoi on rights.
Today, the U.S. Secretary of State and FMs of the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are in the venue of 17th ARF.
Before Vietnam, Hillary toured the RoK in which she said the evidence is “overwhelming” that a North Korean submarine sank a South Korean warship and the communist country must face international consequences for its actions.
Vietnamese
