[Vnbiz] Vietnam President to visit U.S. on June 22

[Phan, Tai]

Vietnam President to visit U.S. on June 22 By Grant McCool 

6/4/2007
 


HANOI (Reuters) - President Nguyen Minh Triet will visit U.S.        President George W. Bush in the White House on June 22 at a time when Washington is applying pressure on Vietnam over the trials and jailing of political activists. 


 
A U.S. Embassy official said on Monday that a formal invitation has been made to Triet, who will be the first Vietnamese head of state to visit Washington since the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam in 1975.

The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1995 and friendly ties are largely founded on trade and business.

"The White House meeting will take place on June 22," the embassy official said.

Triet, who is expected to be greeted by protests in support of Vietnam's tiny dissident community, is making the trip to reciprocate Bush's state visit to the communist-run country last November around the time of an Asia-Pacific summit in Hanoi.

The relationship between the former enemies has matured in the last 12 years to encompass trade and business, military ties, education and fighting diseases such as        HIV/        AIDS and bird flu.

"I believe there is a recognition on both sides that individual events should not be an obstacle to continued dialogue aimed at strengthening ties," said Tom Vallely, head of the Vietnam program at the Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The United States, along with the        European Union, has condemned a series of trials since March in which at least seven proponents of a multi-party system were jailed for between three and eight years.

Western governments have also called for their release and the release of other dissidents opposed to one-party rule.

Last week, Bush met Vietnamese-American supporters of the dissidents at the White House.

The Vietnamese President is also expected to visit New York and Los Angeles, diplomatic sources said. His entourage will include representatives of Vietnam business.

Among the issues to be discussed are efforts to clean up so-called "hot spots" of dioxin, commonly known as "agent orange" from three former American wartime air bases.

"This issue is important and we are pleased that we are having more ongoing conversations about that," a U.S. Embassy official said.

The issue has long been sensitive in the relationship, but last year Hanoi and Washington set a new tone in discussing it.

However, a Vietnamese victims group has pursued a lawsuit against U.S. chemical manufacturers. Coincidentally, a hearing in the case is scheduled for June 18 in New York while Triet is in the United States.

Dioxin is a small compound within the "agent orange" herbicide that the Americans used to defoliate the jungles where communist troops were based, but it is one of the most toxic compounds known, scientists say.