Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Viet Nam News

November 10, 2003

HA NOI — Viet Nam’s Defence Minister Pham Van Tra was set to leave for the US on Sunday for a four-day visit to the country.

Tra would also visit Brazil from November 13-15 and Belgium from November 16-19.

The visit, at the invitation of the US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, Brazil’s Minister of Defence Jose Viegas, and Belgium’s Minister of Defence Andre Flahaut, aims at promoting relations between Viet Nam and the three countries.

Regarding the visit by Minister Tra to the US, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Dzung said ties between Viet Nam and the US have developed positively in many areas since they established diplomatic relations in 1995.

Bilateral military ties have been established and gradually expanded, Dzung said.

Former US Secretary of Defence William Cohen paid a visit to Viet Nam in March 2000, and the trip by Minister Pham Van Tra is a reciprocal visit aimed at promoting mutual understanding between the two nation’s military sectors.

This is the first-ever visit to the US by a Vietnamese Minister of Defence, Dzung said, adding that "we believe the visit will help boost mutual understanding and expand Viet Nam-US relations on the principles of respect for each other’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefits."

Tra told the domestic press that his visit to US aims at the future exchanges of military delegations between the two countries, and further accelerating work on the issue of soldiers missing in action.

The Vietnamese delegation would also raise the consequences of Agent Orange at meetings with US officials.

The US must bear responsibility for the ongoing health damage from the toxic defoliant sprayed by US aircraft during the American War, Tra said. — VNS