President Obama said over the past century, the us and Vietnam have known cooperation and conflict, and that after more than two decades of normalized relations, ties have reached a new moment..
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First, human rights, and religious and press freedoms must be high on the list, even as Obama considers lifting allowing military sales to Vietnam.
“The Vietnamese regime remains autocratic, having undertaken only a few economic and nearly no political reforms, while still possessing an abysmal human rights record”, Eland noted.
“Upholding these rights is not a threat to stability but actually reinforces stability and is the foundation of progress”, Obama told the audience, which included Communist Party officials. “That’s how some of our greatest companies began”.
Republican U.S. Senator Bob Corker welcomed the move, noting, “I’ve been supportive of the partial lifting of arms sales restrictions to help Vietnam strengthen its maritime defenses, and I look forward to continuing to examine proposed sales for that goal”.
The White House said the President’s speech was broadcast on Vietnamese television. “Every country has a fundamental duty to protect the human rights of the citizens that live within those borders”.
Freedom of expression is where new ideas happen, Obama said. However, he acknowledged that authorities had prevented some individuals from attending.
Before getting into his limousine, the U.S. president stopped to greet excited locals while many of them captured the moment on their phones.
“There’s plenty that is controversial about Vietnam here, whether it’s labor, environment or human rights”, said Matthew Goodman, former director for global economics for the National Security Council who is now a senior adviser for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and worldwide Studies. “And it brings new people into the system”, Obama said.
“We feel really motivated to later express ourselves freely”, Ngoc Dao, 23, told CNN.
The Pentagon says China has reclaimed more than 1,295 hectares (3,200 acres) of land in the southeastern South China Sea and is developing and building military installations on the manmade islands.
However, Obama clarified that the USA will remain strict in regulating applications to acquire American weapons and surveillance equipment.
“Vietnam will have greater access to the equipment you need to improve your security”, he said.
China claims nearly all the South China Sea and has upset neighbours with a series of reclamation and construction projects – including airstrips – on reefs and islets.
What’s vital is whether the countries involved have sincerity and determination to resolve the disputes.
Several American lawmakers and veterans supported US President Barack Obama’s historic decision to fully lift a decades-old embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam.
The President added that the US did not think disputes should be settled “based on who’s the bigger party and who can throw their weight around a little bit more”. “And it sends a real message that the US intends to engage Vietnam just as it would any other state in the region, and that it is committed to the rebalance to Asia”, he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the National Convention Center in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
Today, America’s president must also not “go wobbly” in pressing for continued change in Vietnam in two critical areas.
Obama is the third American president to visit Vietnam since the end of the war in 1975.
Obama and Bourdain met in a small complex in Hanoi’s Me Tri neighborhood in a heavy downpour. “Every time someone promises this and that, we all get in trouble for that”, he said. On his first day, the US leader met with Vietnam’s top officials, including President Tran Dai Quang and Chairwoman of the lawmaking National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in the morning, followed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in the afternoon.
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It’s impossible to measure how much influence Obama’s policies have or haven’t had on the governments involved.
