Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet will visit the United States from Monday to Saturday, which is expected to bring about considerable socioeconomic gains to Vietnam.

Triet will become the first Vietnamese head of state to tour Washington since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. He is scheduled to hold talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington on Friday, and meet with leaders of the US Senate and the House of Representatives, and representatives of US firms and Vietnamese people living in the United States.

"I plan to discuss with President Bush and other US leaders specific measures to strengthen the effectiveness and stability in the Vietnam-US relationship. I will meet with US residents as well as overseas Vietnamese who are living in the United States in order to strengthen the friendship between the two peoples and boost the mutual understanding and sympathy between the two nations," he told local media on Thursday.

According to local analysts, Triet's visit has three main purposes.

First, beefing up bilateral economic and trade cooperation. During the trip, the two sides are expected to ink a trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) and some economic deals. The TIFA is a platform on which they will work to further strengthen their trade and investment ties.
 
The two sides are also actively preparing for signing a contract on buying airplanes during the trip, but the results depend on negotiations between the Vietnam Airlines and US Boeing Company, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said Thursday.

Concerning trade, Vietnam and the United States have seen noteworthy improvements since the taking effect of their bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in late 2001, a milestone marking the full normalization between the two countries, with two-way trade soaring to US$9.7 billion in 2006 from US$1.4 billion in 2001.

However, the United States' application of anti-dumping taxes on Vietnamese catfish and shrimps are slowing down the local exports, and the BTA has not created an investment boom as the two sides wished with US investors having poured and committed over US$2.3 billion into Vietnam so far, ranking the 8th biggest foreign investor in the country.

Therefore, the upcoming historic trip by Triet, to be accompanied by a large number of officials and representatives from leading Vietnamese companies, is a good chance for Vietnam to implement investment promotion and draw investment, especially in fields in which US firms have prominent strengths like high technology.

"I welcome US entrepreneurs to do business in Vietnam. The Government of Vietnam will continue to create a favorable environment and conditions for foreign investors to operate in the country," Triet said.

Second, speeding up process of solving issues left by the war, including local victims of Agent Orange, and narrowing some differences, especially those related to democracy and human rights.
 
The United States has agreed to help Vietnam in strengthening Agent Orange detoxification. In February, the United States announced to fund Vietnam US$400,000 for dioxin detoxification in the Da Nang Airport in central Da Nang city " This is the first positive initial step in implementing the Vietnam-US Joint Statement signed in 2006," Le Dung said.

On June 18, the first day of Triet's visit to the United States, a federal appeals court in New York will hear arguments on whether or not Vietnamese Agent Orange victims are eligible for suing 32 US chemical companies which produced dioxin-containing Agent Orange" defoliant sprayed by the US army in the Vietnam War.

According to studies of US scientists, the US army dropped some 80 million liters of defoliants, mostly Agent Orange, which contained nearly 400 kilograms of dioxin, an extremely toxic substance, to Vietnam between 1961 and 1971, said the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin. Some 4.8 million Vietnamese people have so far been exposed to Agent Orange, of whom some 3 million are victims, said the association.

Third, continuing to call for the Vietnamese community in the United States, over 1.5 million people or half of the number of Vietnamese living abroad, to better understand the situation in Vietnam, not conducting activities which are contrary to its interest, and to make stronger contributions to its development.

"Thousands of overseas Vietnamese with their assets in the United States have selected their home country for investment and business operations and they have invested thousands of billions of Vietnamese dong (dozens of million dollars) in Vietnam. I would like to praise those experts and academics who have made intellectual contributions to national construction, and cooperated with their colleagues inside the country in scientific research, training and experience exchange," Triet told local media on Thursday.

Besides the three main purposes, some analysts said that Triet's visit also aims to foster Vietnam-US military cooperation ties which have focused on dealing with the war's aftermath for a long time, and have recently been expanded to a new domain of personnel training.

From narrow dimension of cooperation on humanity, Vietnam and the United States have expanded it into such important fields as politics, economy, healthcare, education, science and technology, and most recently - military, anti-terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational crimes. The two countries are showing readiness to bring their ties to a new height towards stable and long-term cooperation, and multi-faceted, constructive and friendly partnership.

(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2007)