CASPER
New member
Time for 'next step' in US-Vietnam relations: McCain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam and the United States must take the "next step" in their relationship, beyond the normalisation that followed years of war, Senator John McCain said during a visit Tuesday.
McCain, who lost his bid for the White House to Democrat Barack Obama in November, called for "a modernisation of our ties commensurate with Vietnam's rising status in the region and in the world."
In a speech applauded by students at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, McCain, 72, said the two countries should have closer economic and military ties.
He also said communist Vietnam, a one-party state, had a chance to extend its economic and diplomatic achievements by making changes of "historic magnitude" in its approach to political freedoms.
"It is time to take the next step" in relations, said the former navy pilot, who was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and held prisoner for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnamese-American war.
The two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1995, 20 years after Vietnam's re-unification and the war's end.
"The further strengthening of our relationship should occur not only because of the unprecedented economic transformation of Vietnam and the extraordinary progress of our relations in the last two decades," said McCain.
"But also because of the historic shift of economic power from the Western world to Asia," said the Arizona Republican, his party's senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain warned of voices, both in Asia and the US, urging a return to economic isolationism during the global recession.
"We must not heed them," he said.
"We must advance, not retreat," by exploring new ways, for example, of increasing trade between the US and Vietnam while expanding free trade benefits to other Southeast Asian states, said McCain, who has made many peacetime visits to Vietnam.
The two countries should conclude a bilateral investment treaty, McCain said.
Resisting the forces of anti-globalisation also requires action from Vietnam, including a further opening of society that will allow the already dynamic economy to thrive even more, he said.
"Now, I believe, Vietnam has the chance to extend its accomplishments by pursuing progress in the political and social spheres," said McCain.
He said that included greater freedom of expression, widening the scope for political activity, the release of those imprisoned for peacefully expressing their views, and improvement in human rights generally.
"This change... would be of historic magnitude," he said.
"You could become a model for others to emulate. And you would ensure that, over time, relations with the United States are anchored not in the shifting sands of mutual economic and security interests, but in the bedrock of shared values."
Security and economic growth are intimately connected, McCain said.
"We would like to see an increase in the military to military relationship between our two countries," he told a press conference.
The war between the two countries left more than 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese dead, but in 2003 the first US warship in almost 30 years docked peacefully in Vietnam.
McCain said he would like Vietnamese officers to attend US defence universities, and stepped-up cooperation on exchanging information related to terrorist threats.
Despite remarkable progress in relations, US wartime use of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam remains an issue between the two countries, McCain said.
After meeting Vietnamese officials, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, McCain was to fly Wednesday to Beijing as part of an Asian tour with two senate colleagues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam and the United States must take the "next step" in their relationship, beyond the normalisation that followed years of war, Senator John McCain said during a visit Tuesday.
McCain, who lost his bid for the White House to Democrat Barack Obama in November, called for "a modernisation of our ties commensurate with Vietnam's rising status in the region and in the world."
In a speech applauded by students at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, McCain, 72, said the two countries should have closer economic and military ties.
He also said communist Vietnam, a one-party state, had a chance to extend its economic and diplomatic achievements by making changes of "historic magnitude" in its approach to political freedoms.
"It is time to take the next step" in relations, said the former navy pilot, who was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and held prisoner for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnamese-American war.
The two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1995, 20 years after Vietnam's re-unification and the war's end.
"The further strengthening of our relationship should occur not only because of the unprecedented economic transformation of Vietnam and the extraordinary progress of our relations in the last two decades," said McCain.
"But also because of the historic shift of economic power from the Western world to Asia," said the Arizona Republican, his party's senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain warned of voices, both in Asia and the US, urging a return to economic isolationism during the global recession.
"We must not heed them," he said.
"We must advance, not retreat," by exploring new ways, for example, of increasing trade between the US and Vietnam while expanding free trade benefits to other Southeast Asian states, said McCain, who has made many peacetime visits to Vietnam.
The two countries should conclude a bilateral investment treaty, McCain said.
Resisting the forces of anti-globalisation also requires action from Vietnam, including a further opening of society that will allow the already dynamic economy to thrive even more, he said.
"Now, I believe, Vietnam has the chance to extend its accomplishments by pursuing progress in the political and social spheres," said McCain.
He said that included greater freedom of expression, widening the scope for political activity, the release of those imprisoned for peacefully expressing their views, and improvement in human rights generally.
"This change... would be of historic magnitude," he said.
"You could become a model for others to emulate. And you would ensure that, over time, relations with the United States are anchored not in the shifting sands of mutual economic and security interests, but in the bedrock of shared values."
Security and economic growth are intimately connected, McCain said.
"We would like to see an increase in the military to military relationship between our two countries," he told a press conference.
The war between the two countries left more than 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese dead, but in 2003 the first US warship in almost 30 years docked peacefully in Vietnam.
McCain said he would like Vietnamese officers to attend US defence universities, and stepped-up cooperation on exchanging information related to terrorist threats.
Despite remarkable progress in relations, US wartime use of the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam remains an issue between the two countries, McCain said.
After meeting Vietnamese officials, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, McCain was to fly Wednesday to Beijing as part of an Asian tour with two senate colleagues.
