President Barack Obama taped the second part of an interview with CNN celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain before leaving the Vietnamese capital for his next stop: Ho Chi Minh city.
Advertisement
And despite a history in which the United States tried violently to impose its will on this nation, Mr Obama said no other country should try such a strategy. Direct US involvement in the conflict ended in 1973.
Relaxing an “out of the ordinary” arms embargo was neither out of order nor inflammatory, Kerry insisted.
“The U.S.is on the other side of the Pacific”, he replied.
Obama was also scheduled to meet with entrepreneurs, providing him another opportunity to promote what he says will be enhanced trade under a 12-nation trade deal that is stalled in Congress and opposed by the leading U.S. presidential candidates.
He has been cautious to avoid hectoring his hosts – an increasingly important regional ally – on human rights.
“The United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some fifty years”, he said on Monday at a joint press conference alongside his Vietnamese counterpart President Tran Dai Quang.
Vietnam has a history of invasions, from the French to the Chinese and the Japanese.
Earlier Obama met civil society leaders, including some of the country’s long-harassed dissidents.
One of those present was Mai Khoi, a pop star dubbed Viatnam’s “Lady Gaga” who was recently barred from standing as an independent in legislative elections.
Local media reported that Mr Obama bought four more sets of food to bring back to the hotel.
He had been detained by plainclothes security officers, he said later by telephone.
Shifting from the historical to the modern, Obama was also stopping by the Dreamplex business complex in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, a space for startup entrepreneurs that fits with Obama’s message about the potential benefits of closer ties to Vietnam’s growing economy and its burgeoning middle class.
Crowds have enthusiastically welcomed the United States leader wherever he has gone, including late Monday at a streetside restaurant where he supped beer and a local noodle soup speciality. Some held handwritten signs that said: “Obama, we love you”.
“As part of our engagement with [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and the East Asia Summit, we’re working together to advance regional security and stability”, he said.
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 global law”.
China, Hua said, was willing to work with Vietnam to implement a range of legal agreements “to elevate boundary management and cooperation and take bigger strides to develop China-Vietnam relations”.
The Chinese have literally built islands on reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea and has built airstrips and ports on the islands and placed radar stations, support buildings, solar arrays and lighthouses on them.
Advertisement
China maintains that it is simply exercising sovereignty on its territories and has accused the USA of militarizing the South China Sea region by conducting “freedom of navigation” operations and military drills in the area.
