Pompeo wraps up Asia tour in Vietnam following prisoner release
31 October, 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo finished up a visit to Asia in Vietnam on Friday (Oct 30) after a tour marked by his repeated calls for help for america in confronting security threats posed by China.
Vietnam, which also shares concern about an increasingly assertive China, was a late addition to the trip that included Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and Indonesia.
"We anticipate continuing to interact to build on our relationship and to make the region - throughout Southeast Asia, Asia and the Indo-Pacific - safe and peaceful and prosperous," said Pompeo, who greeted Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc with an elbow bump before their meeting.
Phuc said he sought "sincere cooperation" in support of a relaxing region and progress in trade and investment ties.
While there was no public reference to China on Friday, Pompeo has urged Southeast Parts of asia to endure its bullying and to reassess business deals with its state firms.
While in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, Pompeo said the Chinese Communist Party was operating as a "predator". In India the day before, he needed cooperation in confronting what he called Chinese threats to security and freedom in your community.
China has said america should stop its unprovoked accusations and attacks.
The primary concern in Vietnam is China's claims in the South China Sea.
China's U-shaped "nine-dash line" on its maps marks a vast expanse of the ocean it claims, including swathes of Vietnam's continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions and where Chinese and Vietnamese ships have in recent years been embroiled in months-long standoffs.
Pompeo's trip came as Vietnam and america mark the 25th anniversary of the normalising of diplomatic ties. But it addittionally came weekly after Hanoi released a Vietnamese-born US citizen sentenced to 12 years in jail for "wanting to overthrow the state".
Hours before Pompeo's arrival, Vietnam's foreign ministry released a statement saying the person, Michael Nguyen, who returned to his home in California the other day, was released for humanitarian reasons.
The statement made no mention of Nguyen's account of his arrest and interrogation, including his claim in a news conference on Wednesday that he previously been kidnapped.
Pompeo on Friday met Vietnam's Minister of Public Security To Lam, whose office manages domestic security and tracking dissidents in the communist-ruled country.
After the meeting, Pompeo said in a tweet that he also to Lam had discussed the South China Sea and Mekong region.
Bitter enemies through the US-Vietnam War, Hanoi and Washington have enjoyed drastically warmer relations recently.
But there have some trade tensions lately, with the US Trade Representative confirming in August that it had been investigating whether Vietnam have been undervaluing its dong currency and harming US commerce.
Prime Minister Phuc this week called on President Donald Trump to have "a far more objective assessment of the reality in Vietnam" based on the trade imbalance.
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