Obama reaches out to people a day after Vietnam arms deal
He said doing so reinforces stability and does not threaten it. Obama added that nations are more successful when these rights are respected.
Later, in a speech to more than 2,000 Vietnamese citizens, including students and government officials, Obama again took up the matter of human rights carefully, saying that “no nation is perfect” and listing the United States’ own shortcomings first. The United States partially lifted the ban in 2014, but Vietnam pushed for full access as it tries to deal with China’s land reclamation and military construction in nearby seas.
“I repeat this again - no conflict”, he said.
Obama, looking to bolster a government regarded as a crucial ally in the region, vowed to leave behind the troubled history between the former enemies and embrace a new era. That’s how a Facebook starts. “That is how some of our greatest companies began”.
And, stability is encouraged when voters get to choose their leaders in free and fair elections “because citizens know that their voices count and that peaceful change is possible”.
“Seeing Obama here is so extremely promising”, says Nguyen, who describes himself as a tech professional and entrepreneur. Trust me: While you may see USA warships making port visits to Cam Ranh Bay, none will be home-ported there anytime soon - if ever.
The US and Vietnam will also focus on humanitarian cooperation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. “I think this will particularly be reflected in the maritime domain, which is one of the areas that we work most closely with Vietnam in”.
Chinese state media on Tuesday, May 24, slammed the lifting of a decades-old USA arms embargo against Vietnam, saying the move was aimed at Beijing and calling Barack Obama’s assurances to the contrary “a very poor lie”. Yet a handful of others were prevented from meeting with Obama, prompting the White House to protest to Vietnam’s government. Obama received a round of applause after he said “big nations should not bully smaller ones”.
The move is created to bring us closer to one of the world’s fastest-growing economic zones and complement the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement Mr. Obama wants Congress to approve.
“I am not the first American president to come to Vietnam in recent times but I am the first, like so many of you, who came of age after the war between our countries”, he said.
Washington has trailed the three-day visit as a chance to cement ties with Vietnam, a fast-growing country with a young population seen as a key element in America’s diplomatic pivot to the Asia-Pacific.
The White House said in a statement that both Presidents attended a signing ceremony to official mark a series of commercial deals between US and Vietnamese companies, together valued at more than $16 billion. He said during his address that the agreement would give workers the right to form unions and prohibits forced labor and child labor.
President Tran Dai Quang (R) and US President Barack Obama chair a joint press conference on May 23.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for territorial disputes in the South China Sea to be resolved peacefully and not through bullying as Vietnam balks at Chinese actions in the bitterly contested waters.
US officials said that lifting the arms embargo would make it easier for Washington to engage with Vietnam on such issues.
In Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, US Secretary of State John Kerry echoed Obama’s insistence that the lifting of the arms embargo was not meant to target China.
Obama’s visit follows what the Pentagon called an “unsafe” intercept last week by Chinese fighter jets of a USA military reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.
Talking to activists during a gathering in Hanoi city, Obama praised the Vietnamese people who are “willing to make their voices heard”.