Diplomat confident of successful US Presidential trip

11:23' 17/06/2007 (GMT+7)

Nguyen Tam Chien (photo: mofa.gov.vn) VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam's Ambassador to the United States has predicted that the upcoming visit to the US by State President Nguyen Minh Triet will usher in a bright new era of bilateral relations between the two countries. Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien made the remark during an exclusive interview with the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) prior to the State President’s trip that is scheduled from June 18-23. The Vietnamese diplomat spelt out the three following reasons why he felt the visit would prove to be successful: Firstly, the trip is to be the first ever made by a Vietnamese State President to the United States. The visit would showcase a rapid increase of high-level diplomatic exchanges over the last decade. In 2005, then Prime Minister Phan Van Khai made an official visit to the US that was preceded by a 2000 trip to Vietnam by US President Bill Clinton and followed by a 2006 visit to the country by George W Bush for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Secondly, the State President will travel with a massive business delegation of over 200 business executives. A large number of US conglomerate and company executives have registered to meet and discuss business opportunities with the delegation and it is expected that a plethora of contracts will be signed during the meetings. Thirdly, the Unites States is home to an overseas Vietnamese community of over 1.5 million or close to half of the entire Viet Kieu community based outside the Southeast Asian nation. The Vietnamese ambassador concluded by saying “I strongly believe that the visit will be a success. The trip's outcomes will complete the full normalisation of relations between Vietnam and the US and usher in a new stage of cooperation between the two countries, where joint efforts will be made to set up long term cooperative ties. (Source: VNA)