Hanoi collaborating with U.S. against terrorism
HANOI - Plans for a groundbreaking
visit by a U.S. frigate next month
reflect Vietnam's increased interest in
mutual cooperation against terrorism in
Southeast Asia, a U.S. official said
yesterday.
Military officials first disclosed plans
for the visit to The Washington Times
during a briefing in Hawaii earlier this
month.
"A U.S. Navy ship should be
steaming up the river to Ho Chi Minh
[City] later in November," the U.S.
official said yesterday, referring to the
former Saigon.
He added that the visit, the first by a
U.S. military vessel since the Vietnam
War, was timed to follow closely a visit
to the United States by Vietnamese
Defense Minister Pham Van Tra. He said
the details still were being worked out.
Military-to-military cooperation with
Vietnam began in earnest just two
years ago, said the official, who noted
that France, Australia and other
countries already have undertaken such
military missions.
Commercial links and bilateral trade
have exploded since the old war
enemies normalized relations in 1995,
but military and law-enforcement links,
as well as intelligence exchanges, have
been limited.
Although a wariness of the United
States persists, the overlap in strategic
interests seems to be winning out.
"In the last two years, we started to
make a lot of progress," said the
official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. He noted that the
Vietnamese military this year had for
the first time participated in the
U.S.-sponsored Asia Pacific Chiefs of
Defense meeting in Hawaii and
observed the "Cobra Gold" military
exercises in Thailand.
"Both countries recognized that
there are transnational issues that
require cooperation," such as terrorism,
piracy on the high seas and trafficking
in drugs and people, the official said.
Terrorism seemed a remote issue to the Vietnamese until
the Bali bombing that left 202 dead in Indonesia, the Marriott
Hotel explosion in Jakarta, the capture of Jemaah Islamiyah
terrorist Hambali in Thailand, and the appearance in Cambodia
of radicals linked to Jemaah Islamiyah.
"All of that gave them a sense that maybe it's not so far
away after all," said the U.S. official. "In the last few months,
Vietnam has been viewing the issue with a greater sense of
the fact that it could affect Vietnam."
The main thrust of U.S. cooperation with Vietnam until now
has been the recovery of POW/MIAs and increased commercial
exchanges.
"There's been an explosion of bilateral trade" as Vietnam
has opened up to the world market, the official said. In recent
years, Hanoi has rushed to create jobs for the country's 80
million people after its long isolation from the regional and
world economy.
But political reform and respect for human rights are
lagging, he said.
"It is a balancing act," he said. "Vietnam has had some
administrative reform; it is moving toward better governance.
But the goal is to move toward a much more market-driven
economy while maintaining the party system."
Vietnamese officials, who often cite the Chinese model of
economic reform under one-party rule, defend the need of
the government to maintain rigid political control.
"We need to absorb the good values of the international
community, but we need to filter," said Phi Nhu Chanh,
director of the International Relations and Popularization
Department.
"The government has its own policy to defend the national
identity from bad influences from the outside" or those "not
in conformity with our cultural national identity," Mr. Phi said.
By Sharon Behn - The Washington Times - October 30, 2003.
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