Vietnam wants US to lift ban on sale of weapons [-Vietnam sides with the US while Cambodia sides with China?]

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (R) welcomes US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Hanoi June 4 (Photo: Vietnam News Agency)

Tuesday, June 05, 2012
By Nguyen Phong
Thanh Nien News

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung Monday called on the US to fully remove a ban on the sales of lethal weapons to his country at a meeting in Hanoi with visiting US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

He also urged the US to work to resolve the consequences of the Vietnam War.

Highlighting the positive changes since the two nations established diplomatic ties in 1995, Dung said that Vietnam considers the US a leading partner and hopes the US would continue to help maintain peace, security, stability, cooperation, and development in the Asia-Pacific region.

He listed economics, trade, investment, science and technology, education and training, anti-terrorism, fight against transnational crimes, maritime safety and security, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and adaptation to climate change as the areas in which Vietnam wants to boost bilateral ties.

Vietnam and the US: The Odd Couple

The US won't need this stuff back

Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Written by David Brown
Asia Sentinel

The Vietnamese regime’s posture on human rights will remain a weighty burden on the US-Vietnam relationship. There’s a new generation of politically savvy Vietnamese-Americans who not only care about such things but can swing quite a few votes. Particularly in this American election year, Hanoi’s repression of domestic dissidents can lob a spanner into the bilateral security and trade dialogues. 

Big oil companies have been put on notice that if they want a piece of the action in China, they’d better get out of Vietnam. Britain’s BP divested its Vietnam properties in 2010, and early this year the second-biggest American oil company, Conoco-Phillips, sold its US$1 billion stake in Vietnam to a French firm. Exxon-Mobil, however, says it’s intent on developing a recent strike offshore central Vietnam.

An alliance of convenience becomes a strategic relationship

Particularly in this American election year, human rights issues will test the durability of the rapprochement between Vietnam and the United States – former enemies now seemingly the best of friends.

Officials from Hanoi and Washington get together frequently these days. An eavesdropper on the bilateral contacts might conclude that the unpleasantness of two generations ago, what Vietnamese refer to as “the American war,” was just a speed bump on the road to intimacy.

Indeed, the officials have plenty to talk about. They are tending a lengthening list of shared interests that include booming two-way trade, the elaboration of a military partnership, US support for public health, education and environmental protection initiatives and a pact that could clear the way for transfers of American nuclear technology.

When the toasting begins after a day of negotiations, there are euphoric references to the ‘remarkable development’ of cooperation between Hanoi and Washington.

What’s remarkable isn’t that old enemies are now friends, but that an alliance of convenience has been dressed up and presented as a ‘strategic relationship.’

Two objectives have guided Hanoi’s re-engagement with the US:

• The regime’s ability to deliver sustained economic growth to Vietnam’s citizenry depends importantly on easy access to the American market and investment capital, and
• US military cooperation will cause China to think twice about pursuing expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A friend in need is a friend indeed

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

VN, US sign nuclear energy pact

30/03/2010
AFP

Vietnam and the United States signed a pact on Tuesday described as a key foundation for development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.

US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak (R) and Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Dinh Tien (L) raise a toast after signing a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation in the nuclear energy field in Hanoi. Vietnam and the United States signed a pact on Tuesday described as a key foundation for development of peaceful atomic power in the communist country.

"This is an important moment in our bilateral relations," US ambassador Michael Michalak said before endorsing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on nuclear energy cooperation.

"This MOU is a key step in furtherance of our common non-proliferation goals, and a significant building block in the development of Vietnam's peaceful, civilian nuclear power programme."

In November, Vietnam's communist-dominated parliament brushed aside criticism and approved construction of the country's first nuclear power stations. Initial plans call for four reactors, with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts, at least one of which should be operational from 2020.

Vietnam and the United States have signed several deals to boost nuclear cooperation in the past few years, and Michalak said he expects Tuesday's memorandum will be a step towards a legally-binding agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

This "would allow even broader and deeper nuclear cooperation between our two countries and would facilitate the participation of the US companies in the Vietnamese nuclear sector," he said.

Vietnam and the United States this year mark 15 years since they re-established relations after the Vietnam War.

Sources last month said Vietnam has decided to award Russia's state atomic energy firm, Rosatom, a contract to build the country's first nuclear power plant.

Japan is also reportedly interested in helping to build future Vietnamese nuclear power plants.

Vietnam is rapidly modernising with average energy demand growing at about 10 percent per year, authorities say.

Political Cartoon: The Victim of Communism Memorial

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)