Posted on 06/21/2005 10:08:38 AM PDT by Pyro7480
Bush supports Vietnam in WTO
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush told Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai on Tuesday that he supports Vietnam's bid to join the World Trade Organization, in the first visit by the Vietnamese leader since the war.
Bush also said he would visit Vietnam in 2006, the year it plays host to the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
"We talked about our desire for Vietnam to join the WTO," Bush told reporters in an Oval Office picture-taking session after their talks.
Vietnam has set a goal of joining the WTO at the trade organization's next ministerial meeting in December in Hong Kong. The U.S. Congress would have to vote on any deal to allow Vietnam to join the WTO, as it did with China in 2000.
Khai said his visit "shows that Vietnam-U.S. relations have in fact entered a new stage of development."
Chanting "VC (Viet Cong) go home" and "No money for Communists," about 100 Vietnamese exiles and a few American war veterans staged a raucous protest on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House and could be heard in the Rose Garden as Bush met Khai.
As they flew the yellow and red-striped flag of former South Vietnam, they burned a Vietnam flag and hung a life-sized mannequin of communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in effigy.
Bush and Khai had been expected to address U.S. concerns about human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam.
Bush made no mention of it in his Oval Office statement, except to note that "we signed a landmark agreement that will make it easier for people to worship freely in Vietnam." He gave no details.
Khai said he and Bush agreed that "there remain differences between our two countries due to the different conditions that we have, the different histories and cultures, but we also agreed that we should work together through a constructive dialogue based upon mutual respect to reduce those difficulties."
MISSING AMERICANS
In the first visit by the leader of communist Vietnam to the United States since the Vietnam War, Bush and Khai also talked about efforts to account for Americans missing from the war. The two countries resumed ties a decade ago.
Bush said Khai told him his government was willing to find the remains of missing Americans, an issue of interest to many U.S. lawmakers.
"I remain deeply concerned that the government of Vietnam could be more forthcoming and transparent in providing the fullest accounting," Rep. Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican on the House International Relations Committee, said in a statement for a congressional hearing on Monday.
Since the United States and Vietnam restored diplomatic ties, two-way trade has risen to $6.4 billion in 2004 from $451 million in 1995. After a bilateral trade pact in 2001, the United States has emerged as Vietnam's key commercial partner.
Khai planned to meet Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss improving security ties. Military relations have advanced cautiously but steadily in the past decade.
Khai told the Washington Post in an interview before leaving Hanoi that the two countries will announce Vietnam's modest new participation in the Pentagon's International Military Education and Training (IMET) program.
IMET provides funds for foreign military officers to attend senior defense colleges in America and to send U.S. training teams to other countries to provide guidance in military resources management and civilian-military affairs.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Charles Aldinger and Paul Eckert)
You make an interesting point.
Bush shouldn't do this freely. He should let China know that if the nukes aren't permanently removed from North Korea, that we WILL take our business to Vietnam.
Now that the commies have tasted capitalism, it'll be very difficult for them to return to a closed society.
Bush has a great bargaining chip, and I'm afraid he's just giving it away.
Kick him for me too.
"Guys told me VietNam has nice beaches. If they build resorts there, they will be just fine."
Yup. And Charlie Don't Surf! ;)
Or, if China continues to do nothing to pressure North Korea, Mr. Bush could state as US policy that any nuclear weapon used by a terrorist organization against the USA will be regarded as a direct attack on the United States by North Korea (and soon Iran if nothing is done to stop them), and will result in our full nuclear retaliation. The threat of bombing North Korea into the stone age should motivate China to pressure them to get rid of their nukes.
Right back where we started from.
*Congress to allow normal trade relations with Viet Nam WITHOUT full account of POW/MIA's
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b9bfd3117c9.htm
Posted on 09/09/2001 4:37:21 PM PDT by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
*Congress to allow normal trade relations with Viet Nam WITHOUT full account of POW/MIA's Thread 2
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b9d9fbe2cbf.htm
Posted on 09/10/2001 10:23:10 PM PDT by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
He darn well better not let the opportunity pass to get our guys HOME.
There. Fixed that.
Congress selling out to Vietnam without a full accounting of our POW/MIA's is just plain wrong. It's all about money.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Let's send the UN building to Ho-Chi-Minh City.
"Bush has never met a communist he didn't like. We have never had a president so eager to destroy capitalism in the name of globalization."
Not true.
He hasn't gone all suckass to Castro yet. Yet.
What do you think we should do with these traitors, Guantanamo?
Chanting "VC (Viet Cong) go home" and "No money for Communists," about 100 Vietnamese exiles and a few American war veterans staged a raucous protest on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House and could be heard in the Rose Garden as Bush met Khai.
Related?
Vietnamese Leader in White House Visit, a First
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1427756/posts
We are winning The Vietnam War. Final victory is a function of the War On Terror.
I heard Viet Nam is helping account for troops who died over there.
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