Human rights activists, who criticized Obama on Monday for lifting a decades-old arms embargo against Vietnam without obtaining concessions on human rights, said Vietnam’s actions Tuesday proved their point.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh pose for a photo before a signing ceremony at the Government Guesthouse as part of the visit by U.S. President Barack Obama in Hanoi, Vietnam May 24, 2016.
He says doing so reinforces stability and doesn’t threaten it. Obama also says nations are more successful when these rights are respected. And though Nguyen was young at the time, he still remembers the United States war in Vietnam.
Phuc hailed as a success Obama’s three-day visit, which ended on Wednesday.
Washington had long stipulated that Vietnam must improve its human rights record before the United States would lift a decades-old ban on sales of lethal arms to its old wartime enemy.
After his visit in the capital here, Obama traveled Tuesday to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam during the war, where he visited an ancient pagoda and planned to meet with young entrepreneurs in the bustling city.
Obama’s Asia pivot aims to advance America’s military footprint aggressively – challenging China’s growing economic, political and military strength, along with checking Russian Federation.
Obama noted that several activists had been blocked from meeting him and said this was an indication that, despite some ” modest” legal reforms “there are still folks who find it very hard to assemble and organise peacefully around issues that they care deeply about”.
Obama announced the lifting of the U.S. arms embargo, a last vestige of the decade-long war.
Human Rights Watch estimates about 110 political dissidents are in prison in Vietnam. -Vietnamese relationship through cooperation, conflict, “painful separation” and a long reconciliation, Obama marveled during a news conference with the Vietnamese president that “if you consider where we have been and where we are now, the transformation in the relations between our two countries is remarkable”. On Monday night, the president sat down with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain at a Hanoi eatery to discuss Vietnamese culture and sample some local street food.
Vietnam’s manufacturing and export-led economy is seen as the biggest TPP beneficiary.
Obama is pitching a trade agreement that is stalled in Congress and opposed by the leading USA presidential candidates.
Mr Obama has received a warm reception in Vietnam, largely because of the hunger that Vietnamese have for a powerful ally against China, which has claimed much of the sea just off Vietnam’s 3,200km coastline. He said the governments are working more closely together than ever before on a range of issues. He said the pact, if approved, will accelerate economic reforms in Vietnam, boost its economic competitiveness, open up new markets and improve labor and environmental standards.
President Barack Obama is pushing for ratification of a 12-nation, free-trade agreement as he speaks to the Vietnamese people, saying it will lessen reliance on one trading partner and broaden ties with more partners, including the United States.
Today, Nguyen sees the USA lifting the arms embargo as a positive step toward allowing Vietnam to defend its place in the region – and he thinks his father would have agreed.
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Obama said that while the U.S.is not a claimant in the disputes it “will stand with partners in upholding core principles, like freedom of navigation and overflight, and lawful commerce that is not impeded, and the peaceful resolution of disputes, through legal means, in accordance with worldwide law”.
