Biden meets Vietnam leader to counter Hanoi's ties with China and Russia
Lam hails Biden's 'historic contribution' to elevating ties
Biden highlights semiconductors, supply chains, cybersecurity
Biden says they're united on freedom of navigation, rule of law
Adds Vietnam president's comments in paragraphs 6 and 7
By Steve Holland and Simon Lewis
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden met Vietnam's president To Lam for talks on Wednesday, aiming to deepen relations with the Southeast Asian country and manufacturing hub and counter its ties with China and Russia.
Biden and Lam, the ruling Communist Party chief making his first visit to the U.S. as president, met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. A senior U.S. official said they discussed how to accelerate a strategic partnership agreed last year.
On meeting Biden on Wednesday, Lam hailed what he called Biden's historic contribution to elevating bilateral relations.
Biden said that since beginning a new era in relations last year, the two countries had made significant investmentsin semiconductors and supply chains and launched unprecedented cooperation on cybersecurity.
He also said they stood united in commitments to freedom of navigation and the rule of law - a reference to regional maritime disputes with China.
The Vietnam News Agency reported Lam told Biden that Vietnam was on the brink of a new era of development, and that it was a friend and reliable partner.
"Vietnam will continue to firmly implement its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralism and diversification," Lam told Biden, the state media agency reported.
Lam met this week in New York with representatives of U.S. companies, including Meta META.O, which pledged to expand investments in the Communist-ruled country with a population of 100 million.
Lam asked business leaders to back Hanoi's bid to have Washington remove it from the list of non-market economies and lift other trade restrictions and for the U.S. and Vietnam to cooperate on semiconductor supply chains.
Biden visited Hanoi a year ago and secured deals on semiconductors and minerals and an upgrade in diplomatic ties, despite U.S. concerns about human rights issues.
U.S. Representative Michelle Steel, a California Republican who represents a large population of Vietnamese Americans, wrote to Biden before the meeting asking him to directly address human rights abuses in Vietnam under Lam’s leadership.
Asked if Vietnam's NME status was discussed, the senior U.S. official told reporters: "They talked about economic cooperation broadly and plans to redouble cooperation with Vietnam."
Asked if they discussed China, the official said: "The leaders acknowledged the fact that Vietnam lives in a complicated neighborhood."
He said there was a recognition that Hanoi "has to be very cautious and strategic to its approach to the region" and that the United States is a strategic partner.
Alexander Vuving, a Vietnam expert at the Hawaii-based Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, said the meeting was important to helping Lam consolidate power after being confirmed as Vietnam's top leader in August.
He said it signaled Vietnam's balanced position between the great powers, given Lam's recent visit to China and meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as theimportance of the Hanoi relationship in U.S. Asia policy.
Lam spoke at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday and his travels include a stop in Cuba, Vietnam's long-term Communist partner.
Ahead of his trip, Vietnamese authorities released some prominent activists from prison before the end of their jail terms, sources told Reuters.
They included Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in January 2010 on charges of subversion, and environment activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong, who was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud in September last year, but other dissidents remain in detention.
Sources told Reuters the United States has been urging Vietnam to avoid Chinese companies in its plans to build 10 new undersea cables by 2030.
Vietnam has long argued it should be freed of the NME label given recent economic reforms and that retaining the moniker is bad for increasingly close two-way ties that Washington sees as a counterbalance to China.
However, Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said it was not Biden's prerogative to offer concessions on that, given Commerce Department criteria.
Opponents, including politically influential U.S. labor lobbies, argue Vietnam's policy commitments have not been matched by concrete actions and it is increasingly being used as a manufacturing hub by Chinese firms to circumvent U.S. curbs on imports from China.
Reporting by Steve Holland and Simon Lewis in New York; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee, Howard Goller and Lincoln Feast.
අදාළ වත්කම්
නවතම පුවත්
වියාචනය: XM Group සමාගම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම පමණක් වන සේවා සපයන අතර වෙබ් අඩවියේ හෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා ලබා ගත හැකි අන්තර්ගතය බැලීමට සහ/හෝ භාවිත කිරීමට පුද්ගලයෙකුට ඉඩ සලසමින් අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකම වෙත ප්රවේශය ලබා දෙන අතර වෙනස් කිරීමට හෝ පුළුල් කිරීමට අදහස් නොකරයි. එවැනි ප්රවේශය සහ භාවිතය සෑම විටම (i) නියමයන් සහ කොන්දේසි, (ii) අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සහ (iii) සම්පූර්ණ වියාචනයට යටත් වේ. එබැවින් එවැනි අන්තර්ගතයක් සාමාන්ය තොරතුරුවලට වඩා වැඩි යමක් සපයා නොමැත. විශේෂයෙන්ම, අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ අන්තර්ගතය පෙළඹවීමක් හෝ මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළවල කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් නොවන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. ඕනෑම මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළක වෙළඳාම් කිරීම ඔබේ ප්රාග්ධනයට සැලකිය යුතු අවදානමක් එක් කරයි.
අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ ප්රකාශිත සියලු කරුණු අධ්යාපනික/තොරතුරුමය අරමුණු සඳහා පමණක් අදහස් කෙරෙන අතර මූල්ය, ආයෝජන බදු හෝ වෙළඳ උපදෙස් සහ නිර්දේශයන්; හෝ අපගේ වෙළඳ මිල පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක්; හෝ ඕනෑම මූල්ය උපකරණයක ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් හෝ ඒ සඳහා පෙළඹවීමක්; හෝ විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමකින් තොරව ඔබ වෙත ලබා දෙන ලද මූල්ය ප්රවර්ධනයන් ලෙස නොසැලකිය යුතුය.
ඕනෑම තෙවන පාර්ශවීය අන්තර්ගතයක් මෙන්ම XM විසින් සකසන ලද අන්තර්ගතය එනම් අදහස්, පුවත්, පර්යේෂණ, විශ්ලේෂණ, මිල ගණන් සහ වෙනත් තොරතුරු හෝ මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අන්තර්ගත තෙවන පාර්ශවීය වෙබ් අඩවි සඳහා සබැඳි සාමාන්ය වෙළඳපොළ විවරණයක් ලෙස "පවතින පරිදි" සපයා ඇති අතර එහි ආයෝජන උපදෙස් ඇතුළත් නොවේ. ඕනෑම අන්තර්ගතයක් ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයක් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇති ප්රමාණයට, ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කර ඇති නෛතික අවශ්යතාවලට අනුකූලව අන්තර්ගතය සකසා නොමැති බවත් එලෙස අරමුණු කර නොමැති බවත් ඔබ සලකා පිළිගත යුතු අතර එබැවින් එය අදාළ නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි යටතේ අලෙවිකරණ සන්නිවේදනයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. ඉහත සඳහන් තොරතුරු සලකා මෙතනින් ප්රවේශ විය හැකි, ස්වාධීන නොවන ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණ සහ අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම පිළිබඳ අපගේ දැනුම්දීම ඔබ කියවා තේරුම් ගෙන ඇති බව සහතික කර ගන්න.
