US wants to help remove Vietnam from special watch list on religious freedom: Ambassa
The US Embassy wishes to cooperate with Vietnam to remove the Southeast Asian nation from the US’s special watch list on religious freedom, Ambassador Marc E. Knapper told Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang during their meeting in Hanoi on April 14.
The ambassador noted that the Vietnam-US relationship has been expanded in various fields, and the two countries held candid, open talks over various issues and at different levels, recalling the long phone talks between Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden last March.
Ten years since the establishment of the bilateral comprehensive partnership and 28 years since the normalisation of the bilateral ties, representatives from the two countries have compared notes many times on issues of shared concern, including those relating to religious freedom, in a frank, open and respectful manner, the diplomat continued.
Knapper said he had served as the political counselor of the US Embassy in Vietnam from 2004 to 2007. During that time, the embassy coordinated with Washington in removing Vietnam from the list of countries of particular concern regarding religious freedom.