US public opinion targets President Obama’s Vietnam visit
The upcoming visit of US President Barack Obama to Vietnam is set to promote multifaceted links between the two nations, according to some US citizens.
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According to officials from the White House, during his visit to Vietnam, the US leader will hold talks with Vietnamese leadership to outline measures to promote a comprehensive partnership in trade-investment, education, security, human rights, and regional and international issues of common concern.
Vietnam-US relations recorded extraoridnary developments over the last two decades.
Vietnam News Agency correspondents in the US quoted Admund Malesky, an associate professor of political economy at the US’s Duke University, saying that this will be a historical visit, which will be likely to strengthen cooperation in many fields from trade, education to energy.
President Obama will witness Vietnam’s strong development and increasing expansion of bilateral ties, he noted.
Andre Sauvageot, a former official of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), stressed that the US should lift its arms embargo on Vietnam, and help Vietnam modernise its military.
The Vietnam-US relationship has experienced bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms after the two sides normalised relations 21 years ago.
Links in security-defence, education, science-technology, and climate change prevention between the two countries made significant progresses with the signing of the Joint Vision Statement in 2015.
Two-way trade increased 90 times from 1994’s figure to US$45 billion last year, and the figure is expected to be greater after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement is officially approved.
Obama will be the third US consecutive president visiting Vietnam after the visits of former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2006.
It is hoped to be a new milestone in bilateral relations, which will also affirm Obama’s commitment to a strategic US rebalance in Asia Pacific.
