 I'm Ernie Bauer with the CSIS Southeast Asia Program, and I'm here today with Vietnam's Ambassador to the United States, Le Cong Phong. Thank you for joining us, Ambassador. I'd like to ask you a couple questions about Vietnam, and Vietnam's very strong leadership of ASEAN over the last year. You just chaired ASEAN, Vietnam chaired ASEAN, of course, in 2010, and Vietnam contributed just an enormous amount to the dynamism of ASEAN. Could you talk a little bit about what you thought were the key accomplishments of Vietnam's year of chairing, and what was Vietnam's strategy for leading ASEAN? This time, the second time the Vietnam chaired the ASEAN, since we entered the Association in 1985, it is not an easy job, I think, but thanks to the support from the ASEAN colleagues and from the dialogue partners, we have, I think, successfully acting as a chair of the ASEAN Association. It is an association, and our principle is based on the consensus, idea and consensus, agreement in Vietnam, and any issue or problem that we, the ASEAN countries, involve in discussion. But we have been in the year trying to heighten the spirit of ASEAN. Some really we try our best to make the ASEAN country and all the activities of the country to push forward the ASEAN charter, and to build up effectively the ASEAN Association. At the same time, we also try to deepen and plunder the relation with the dialogue partners, particularly the East Asia partners, and outside like the U.S., Russia, India, and some other countries. We think, even to be a successful chair, we had to also heighten and consolidate the central ASEAN, trying to do what the ASEAN states and ASEAN people expect us to do, that is to continue pushing ahead the development, economic development, social development in the ASEAN, trying to fill the gap between the developing and developed countries in the ASEAN. We are also trying, and I think in this field is a successful one that is to strengthen the security and stability in the region, trying to work together with the dialogue partners, the ASEAN, trying to, let's say, make the people be secure in the region. And besides that, we concentrate on the rising issue like the maritime security, the conflicts of disputes in the region, how to solve it, how to tackle it, in order to maintain the development, and also maintain the security and stability in the region. You certainly had a great advance this year, which was, to many of us who have watched ASEAN develop, surprised that the ASEAN defense ministers could already get together and agree on an ASEAN defense minister's meeting plus eight. Why was that important to Vietnam? Is it a new security architecture that you're trying to build? You are right to say that is a new security architecture for the region and in large for Asia and Pacific. As the situation develops so fast and sometimes unpredictable, and as the whole nation in Southeast Asia and Asia and South Pacific are engaging themselves in the globalization and integration, so Vietnam think that the finance minister, the economist are working together. Why not? The defense minister and these people are sitting together discussing and reaching an agreement, or at least they discuss among themselves. It should be a great contribution to the situation in the region. Because of that we proposed and agreed by the ASEAN states and it's good that we can be in the first meeting of defense minister in Vietnam. I think the minister, the defense minister of the country, participating in the conference were happy with the result of the meeting. As I mentioned that while all these countries, the ASEAN countries and plus eight countries are working together for the security, for the economic development, for the veterans of education or labor forces, they all need to have the defense minister to talk about what they should secure. The military people should secure the idea, the goal of the region and the participants. I was happy to see our secretary of defense, Secretary Gates, agreed to come very early I think and he was happy to come to Vietnam. Do you think that one of the outcomes of the ASEAN defense minister's meeting plus was that they would meet every three years? Is that often enough? I was surprised that it wasn't going to be an annual meeting. I was surprised to learn that everything will take place every three years. I was not in the meeting, I was not in the discussion of all these ministers, but I personally think that it should be because we are going to have the annual summit, we are going to have the annual summit with US, China, India, Japan, Korea, that's ASEAN plus one and ASEAN plus three with Korea, Japan and China. So I think the defense minister also should have the annual meeting. It's better because there are a lot of things happening here and there in the region, in Asia, in the Pacific, if something happened that we need the idea or discussion of the defense minister and had to wait for another three years, it's still long to wait. It's better to have annual meeting. But I think the ministers there, they discussed and they came up to the conferences then, making it every three years of meeting. And I think in the process from now until 2014 or 13, there's something that required meeting of the defense minister. I hope they will meet. Not waiting for three years, as they agreed. You talked about the ASEAN 10 plus the 8 that are part of the ADMM plus, those are the same eight countries that comprise the East Asia Summit and Vietnam chaired the East Asia Summit this year also. Why is the East Asia Summit important to Vietnam and what did you, what does Vietnam think about the process going forward? But probably speaking, we want ASEAN strong. We want ASEAN developed and with current situation, no one can stand alone to develop his own country, his own society. And the same with ASEAN, ASEAN is linked to the region, to the whole world. ASEAN want to be strong, both politically and economically. They need to cooperate with the neighboring countries and need the countries concerned. That's why we think East Asia is very good, like a doctor, that the relevant countries meet together because we have the dialogue with this country in the region. So they need to be there, they need to discuss the East Asia situation, East Asia security and stability, East Asia economic cooperation. And if that, that's a block, be strong, ASEAN will be strong. So I think that that's the ASEAN push by the ASEAN country. But do you see competition, sort of competing architectures taking place here? On the one hand there's the East Asia Summit, as you mentioned there's also the ASEAN plus three. And some analysts suggest that maybe some countries in the Northeast Asia might prefer the ASEAN plus three because it's got a very robust agenda and the East Asia Summit is relatively new, I think it's five years old. Well, ASEAN wants to cooperate and work together with the architecture ten plus three. That's not enough for ASEAN, that's not enough. We need to get other people to be involved in the region because with Russia, India, Australia, New Zealand, U.S. that's why as the chair we propose an agreed upon by ASEAN we have invited U.S. and Russia to be the full participant of East Asia Summit. Turning to U.S.-Vietnam relations, we just celebrated 15 years of diplomatic relations. You were there? I was there for the 1,000th anniversary of Illinois and I saw the parade, it was fantastic. But in terms of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship, 15 years have done pretty well together. I wanted to get your comment on that. Where do you think the relationship is headed in the future, the U.S.-Vietnam relationship? It's only 15 years, but I think our two sides have made the long steps in promotion of bilateral relations. And we both, I mean the administration, the people are happy with the achievement we recorded in the last 15 years. We have deepened our mutual trust, mutual confidence. We have continuously furthered the bilateral relations in economic and technology, military security. So I think there's no reason why we are not going to have a much better relation in the next 15 years. Could you see the two countries normalizing military-to-military relations in the near future? We are trying to do that. And I think the U.S. side is going to do that. But normalization is a long process. We normalized our liberal declaration in 1995 and we work hard and we can see where it is now and how it is now. For the military cooperation and normalization, I think it takes some time. We both want to intensify the military cooperation. And I think the other people look at our military cooperation and they will feel happily that, okay, these two guys, U.S. and Vietnam, are working hard to intensify their military cooperation for their own benefits and also for the benefit of the region. You know, when you talk about security in Asia, you have to think about the South China Sea. It's obviously been an issue that's in the papers of late. What's Vietnam's perspective on arising China and some of the tension that you've seen in the South China Sea? Do you think the architecture that we've been discussing will be helpful in resolving those tensions? The South China Sea is the... It might be a little bit hard for the people concerned. I mean, the regional countries and also outside of the region. But for the South China Sea, we have to make clear that there are at least three issues that we have to deal with. The first one is the security and stability and peace in the whole region. South Asia and East Asia and Pacific. This issue or this problem, let me say, is the concern of everyone in the region and even in the world, because a lot of people going through here, a lot of people having relations with the country in the region nearing to border in the South China Sea. So everyone is concerned about that. Everyone is interested in following the development in the region. So let's say that it is a global or inlet region of problem that people concerned have to take care of. The second issue is the maritime security. It's crucial for the development. It's crucial for the security in this region. And it, for most, concerned the country having the interest in seeing the security maintained for the maritime in this region. A third issue that is territorial dispute. It is not relating to other countries. It is relating to the agreements of the region. This island, this is the water industry. I think this kind of issue has to be solved on the basis of international law and international practice that international community has had. And no one wants war. No one wants to have conflicts, hard conflicts there. And that is relating to the concerned countries. But of course the concerned countries also expect that outsiders, it is not the claimants of the issue, can render the assistance, support, encouraging the claimants to talk together, to negotiate, trying to find out a good solution that is acceptable to the Iraq claimants. So I understand that ASEAN and China have agreed to meet in December, December 22 and 23 in China to talk about implementing regulations on the declaration of a code of conduct in the South China Sea. Is that your understanding and do you think that China may be evolving its position on this issue? The code of conduct was first proposed by the ASEAN back to 2001. I was the one who worked on that. But because of the different reasons, because of the different ideas from China and ASEAN, we downgrade it from COC to DOC. But in thinking of the ASEAN country, we always run to push the DOC to the stage where there are principle and regulation minding the ASEAN country in China that is code of conduct. And I was pleased to hear that the ASEAN and China agree to start talking about that. As they just come back to where we were in 2001, we discussed about COC, and finally we got the DOC. Now we've got a DOC, we are going to talk about the COC. Hopefully the ASEAN and China will reach near to the code of conduct. It will be not fast. It will take some time. We've already had nine years ahead, I guess. Do you think it will take some more time to come to agreement? No, if we start talking about COC, I don't think it will take full nine years because from the proposal of COC and we get the DOC, it takes about two years. So if the ASEAN country, I think, all want to have the principle of regulation provided and minding and directing all the activities of the countries in the region, relating to South China Sea, the islands, power. But if China show the same idea, I think we will not have to wait for nine years. That would be a welcome development. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has been in Vietnam twice this year, I believe. And at the ASEAN regional forum, she spoke out about these issues that you're talking about and said that the Americans are interested in a resolution based on a multilateral approach and rule of international law. Will Secretary Clinton's comments helpful to ASEAN in that situation? What the Secretary commanded is in line with the ASEAN idea and ASEAN view that everything has to be settled reasonably according to international law and practice. And by another, encourage the negotiation spirits in the region. And it, I think, more or less, it helps. Well, last question, and I appreciate you taking the time. You've been ambassador here for, I guess, now almost three years. Over three years. Over three years. What major accomplishment would you like to see finished before you wrap up your term as ambassador in the United States, whenever that may be? To be more concrete, I've been here for three years and ten days. Okay. Nothing you're counting. Yeah, because I arrived on the 6th of November. Today is the 16th of November, exactly three years and ten days. And I'm happy to see that, looking back three years, I'm so pleased to see the development of my life relations. It's not much, but I have personally contributed a little bit for the development. When I arrived, I promised myself that I have to make U.S., the number one foreign investor in Vietnam. It was last year, 2009. This year, I'm not sure, but it may not be the number one. And now U.S. ranking about fifth or sixth. You know, Vrong. Yeah, you know, Vrong. So I'm pretty sure that number one will come. Sometime, maybe after I leave. I know when I leave, because my government has informed me that it will take me back or stay, still leave me here. Another thing I'm happy with, that is education. It's great. A lot of activities relating to educational cooperation between the cool country has taken place. Many of colleges, universities of U.S. are going to Vietnam thinking of ways to cooperate with university colleges, cooperate with the government of Vietnam on education. That's good. And when I arrived, it was only 6,000 Vietnamese students. Now it is over 13,000. That's great. So you more than doubled the number. More than doubled in three years. It's great. I understand the Vietnamese students are the largest of ASEAN countries. Vietnam is the largest student population in the United States. Yeah, I think it is. It is only over one tenth of Chinese students. Chinese about 127,000 is the biggest. Another thing I also have to say, that Vietnam and the U.S. are trying to join together in economic development, APEC, which you are going to host next year in Hawaii, the TPP, that we both are negotiating with the other eight countries, seven countries, including Malaysia. I request and declare that in Japan that Vietnam will be official member of TPP. What I want to see when I finish my term is that economic, military, security, education, cooperation continue to be promoted. We have to be faster if we don't have the differences. We have some number of things that differ from each other. That's why I hope that if the time to come, whether I'm still here or I've been living, we try to tackle and solve the differences that exist in between our relations. But we have to be practical that some of the differences take time to be solved. But the more we solve, the better for the relations. Ambassador, thank you so much for coming today. That's a great goal and I think all of us hope we can help you and help our government achieve those goals. Thank you very much. Thanks, CSIS.