Nguyễn Phú Trọng và Obama gặp báo chí tại Nhà Trắng
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Tuesday that the United States and Vietnam had moved beyond their “difficult history” and would move ahead on trade and security cooperation that could benefit both countries. He warmly welcomed the head of the nation’s Communist Party to the White House and spoke of a future visit to Vietnam.
Mr.
Obama’s meeting with the Vietnamese official, Nguyen Phu Trong, was
timed to mark the 20th anniversary of normalized relations between the
onetime war enemies. It came 40 years after the fall of Saigon and
reflected a deepening of the reconciliation between the United States
and Vietnam.
It
was also another opportunity for Mr. Obama, who announced last week
that he was ready to restart diplomatic relations with another Cold War
rival, Cuba, to showcase his determination to deal with adversaries
through diplomacy rather than estrangement.
“I
got an invitation to Vietnam, and I think this is indicative of the
remarkable progress that’s taken place in the relationship between our
two countries over the last 20 years,” Mr. Obama said in the Oval
Office, sitting beside Mr. Trong. “I certainly do look forward to
visiting your beautiful country sometime in the future.”
The
warm words fell short of an official pledge to visit Vietnam during Mr.
Obama’s presidency, and administration officials acknowledged privately
that the vagueness was intentional.
Mr.
Obama has made completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a vast
trade agreement spanning the Pacific Rim, a top priority for the
remainder of his term, and ironing out differences with Vietnam —
including its record of trampling on worker rights — is crucial to doing
so.
Although
Mr. Obama is scheduled to travel to Asia this fall for summit meetings,
American officials are reluctant to commit him to a stop in Vietnam
until it is clear that those gaps can be bridged.
“We
discussed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or T.P.P., and the enormous
potential of a high-standards trade agreement that raises labor
standards, raises environmental standards, and could potentially create
significant job growth and prosperity for both the Vietnamese and the
American people,” Mr. Obama said.
At
the same time, Mr. Obama may have been reluctant to accept a direct
invitation from Mr. Trong, who is not a head of state but the leader of
Vietnam’s one-party government.
A
group of Republican and Democratic members of Congress wrote to Mr.
Obama this week asking him to send “a clear message to Hanoi authorities
that respect for human rights is essential for a closer economic and
security relationship.” They criticized the “authoritarian one-party
system” over which Mr. Trong presides, and called the human rights
situation in Vietnam “deplorable.”
Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Trong acknowledged the issue during their meeting.
“We
discussed candidly some of our differences around issues of human
rights, for example, and freedom of religion,” Mr. Obama said. “But what
I’m confident about is that the diplomatic dialogue and practical steps
that we are taking together will benefit both countries, that these
tensions can be resolved in an effective fashion.”
Mr. Trong said the two men had talked about trade and human rights “in a constructive and candid manner.”
“There
has been a bad, difficult chapter in our history,” Mr. Trong said, “but
we have been able to rise above the past to overcome differences, to
promote our shared interests, and look toward a future in order to build
the comprehensive partnership that we have today. As I mentioned to the
president in our meeting, the past cannot be changed, but the future
depends on our action, and it is our responsibility to ensure a bright
future.”
The United States and Vietnam have been pressed together in recent years by mutual wariness about a rising China.
In a joint statement they issued after their meeting on Tuesday, Mr.
Obama and Mr. Trong expressed concerns about developments in the South
China Sea, where China and Vietnam have clashed over territorial claims.
After
the White House meeting, at a luncheon at the State Department, Vice
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. marveled at the historic significance of
Mr. Trong’s visit, saying he had first run for the Senate as a
29-year-old bent on ending the war in Vietnam.
Sou rce:The New York Times
( Lời bình của Trần Hữu Dũng:Để ý:
Obama nói là hi vong sẽ thăm viếng Việt Nam, nhưng không nói là
lúc nào (có thể sau khi ông mãn nhiệm kỳ?). Theo các viên
chức Mỹ thì đây là một sự mơ hồ cố ý. Dù Obama sẽ chu du
châu Á vào mùa thu này nhưng Việt Nam sẽ có trong lộ trình này
hay không còn tùy vào việc những bất đồng còn lại giữa Việt Nam
và Mỹ (về nhân quyền, về chuẩn lao động... ) có bớt đi chút nào
không từ đây đến đó...)
