 Your Excellency, Mr. General Secretary, Ambassadors Bing and Oceus, Ambassador Hills, Ambassadors from the Ocean Washington Committee, your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to CSIS on this historic occasion of the first ever visit by a secretary general of the Communist Party of Vietnam to Washington, DC and the White House. I think all of you might know, but just in case you haven't heard yesterday, the President of the United States, President Obama, met with the General Secretary in the Oval Office and that meeting went well over time, which was a good sign for all of us who were watching the event. You are part of history being made today. My name is Ernie Bauer and I'm the Sumitra Chair for Southeast Asia Studies here at CSIS. It is my distinct honor to welcome you to CSIS for the Banyan Tree Leadership Forum featuring His Excellency Nguyen Phu Trong, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam for an important policy keynote speech entitled US-Vietnam Relations in a Changing World. I'd also like to thank Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh and Ambassador Ted Oceus, who both played leading roles in making this historic visit a reality. Thank you to Carla Hills, Ambassador Carla Hills, who has graciously agreed to introduce the General Secretary in her role as a leading member of the CSIS Board of Trustees in just a moment. But before I invite Ambassador Hills to make her remarks, I need to make a couple of housekeeping announcements. I invite you all to live tweet today's speech using the handles at Southeast Asia, DC, and at CSIS, and using the hashtag CSIS Live. In the unlikely event of an emergency, I will act as your security officer today. And if we need to evacuate, the exits are behind you. Please use the stairs, remain calm, and meet in front of the building across the street. And please follow instructions from CSIS staff. Now, it is my pleasure to introduce a good friend of CSIS and a good friend of mine, Ambassador Carla Hills. Carla has played a vital role in making the United States competitive, most importantly perhaps as the United States Trade Representative in the George H.W. Bush Administration. She's also served in other cabinet positions, including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and her accomplishments in the legal and corporate sectors are legendary, but too numerous for me to recount here. So I'd like to thank her in particular for her role today in this historic event, introducing Secretary Chung. Carla. Thank you, Ernie. That was very gracious of you. Let me say to all of you that it's a great honor to introduce the honorable Wen Fu Chung, who serves as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the Secretary of the Central Military Commission. Vietnam's two most powerful policy positions. The General Secretary Chung was born in Hanoi, studied literature at Vietnam University and obtained a graduate degree from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Political and Public Administration. Early on, he began to work for the Communist Review, the theoretical and political organ of the Communist Party of the Vietnamese Central Committee. In 1981, he went to the Soviet Union to study at the USSR Academy of Social Services, where he received a doctorate degree in political science. He returned to Hanoi to resume his work for the Communist Review, where he rose to be editor-in-chief. He is regarded to be Vietnam's most prominent political theorist. General Secretary Chung has been a member of the Communist Party Central Committee since the early 90s, and over the years he served in a number of prominent government positions, including Secretary of Hanoi City's Party Committee, making him the de facto head of the city authority, member of the Politburo of the Communist Party in charge of ideological, cultural, and scientific educational affairs of the Party Central Committee, chairman of the Central Committee's theoretical council in charge of the Party's theoretical work, chairman of the National Assembly. And since 2011 to and currently is General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Vietnam's Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party. Your Excellency, we are incredibly honored to have you at CSIS and look forward to your remarks. So please join me in welcoming the General Secretary to speak at this podium. It's a pleasure to be with you here today on the occasion of my official visit to the United States, and I would like to thank the Center for Strategic and International Studies for inviting me to address this meeting. I've learned that CSIS is one of the preeminent institutions for research and academic exchange in the United States, and it plays a critical role in promoting academic exchange and dialogue among politicians, scholars, and people from across the world on issues of significant importance to international peace, security, and development. My compliments to your outstanding achievements, and thank you all for your presence. My visit to the United States comes at a time when we are celebrating 20 years of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States. This is a meaningful time for us to reflect upon the relationship between our two countries and to share the vision towards the future. So today, allow me to show you some of my thoughts about Vietnam-U.S. relations, and first regarding Vietnam-U.S. relations. History, the world events in the history of Vietnam-U.S. ties that are little known. Thomas Jefferson, before becoming the third president of the United States, tried to obtain rice seed from Vietnam to grow on his shut-well farm in the state of Virginia. 100 years ago, the Vietnamese patriot, Nguyen That Thanh, who later became President Ho Chi Minh, during his quest for national liberation, set foot in the city of Boston, the starting point of the Revolution for Independence in the United States. During World War II, Vietnam and the United States were allies on the front against fascism. The Vietnam Independence League of Vietnam, led by President Ho Chi Minh, rescued American pilots who had been shot down by Japanese troops in Vietnam, and the only foreigners who were side-by-side with President Ho Chi Minh during the holidays of the August Revolution were American friends. And I would like to tell you some details, and out of the 17 American pilots rescued by Viet Minh, was a lieutenant named William Shaw from the state of Texas. He was met by President Ho Chi Minh, and President Ho Chi Minh brought him to Kunming, China, and to hand him over to American commander stationed there, General Chernol. And he wrote a slogan to call on the Vietnamese people to rescue the American pilots, and these callings were publicized on the Independence newspaper. He also made poems to call to remind the Vietnamese people that the U.S. Army is our friends, and rescuing American pilots is our good intent. The Declaration of Independence of the New Vietnam in 1945 began with a quote from the American Declaration of Independence. All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator of certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. One of the first nations that President Ho Chi Minh wished to establish friendly ties with was the United States. He wrote 14 letters to American leaders, including President Harry Truman, to ask for a full cooperation with the United States. And then President Ho Chi Minh expressed his desire for a full cooperation with the United States, but only recently did our two countries establish comprehensive partnership. However, it is regrettable that some historic opportunities were missed, and we had to encounter, period, full of twists and turns in the history between our two countries until the normalization of relations in 1995. Today in America there are still different opinions about the war the United States conducted in Vietnam in the 20th century. For the Vietnamese people it is the war of resistance for national independence. Freedom and national unification. It is not the war against the United States, nor one against the American people. Even in the midst of war, the Vietnamese people still maintain friendship with the American people. And we were grateful to many Americans who stood up in protest of the war and expressed solidarity with the Vietnamese people. A remarkable example of whom was Martin Luther King Jr. After the end of the war, Vietnam advocated to put behind the past and look to the future while suffering heavily from the consequences of war with 3 million people dead, 4 million wounded, 4.8 million exposed to Asian orange dust and hundreds of thousands missing right in their homeland. The government and people of Vietnam were actively engaged in an effective cooperation with the United States in accounting for American soldiers missing in action in Vietnam. Today, all Americans who come to Vietnam including war veterans are warmly welcomed and they can feel the sincere friendship of the Vietnamese people. That may not be easy to understand for some, but that's the truth that all those who used to come to Vietnam could see firsthand. This morning, I had a meeting with Senator John McCain who is a chairman of the Senate Committee for Armed Services and he recalls the visit of himself and his wife to Hanoi. It's Senator Patrick Lee He. His wife, when in Hanoi, asked somebody to take her in the motorbike to ride around the city of Hanoi and she was so excited about the motorbike riding and she was very impressed at the sincere friendship and hospitality of the Vietnamese people. Having recalled history, I want to affirm the tradition of peace and friendship and the persistent desire of the Vietnamese people for good friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and the United States. Regarding Vietnam-U.S. relations over the past two decades, 20 years ago, few people could have imagined how Vietnam and the United States could overcome the pains of war to build such a robust partnership as today. Over the past 20 years, Vietnam-U.S. relations have gone from strength to strength all the way through important mind-stones. From former foes, we have normalized relations, we have established diplomatic ties, we have also signed the bilateral trade agreement in 2000 and most recently in 2013 we established the comprehensive partnership and our bilateral relations keeps growing strongly. bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas has made substantial progress. Economic cooperation has kept growing strongly and the United States today is Vietnam's leading trade partner. Cooperation in science, technology, education and training has seen very positive steps forward. Do you know how many Vietnamese students are there in the United States? There are currently 16,500 Vietnamese students studying in the United States and Vietnam is the number one country in Southeast Asia with the largest student community in the United States. A bilateral trade over the past 20 years increased by 130 times from 400 million U.S. dollars in 1995 up to 36 billion U.S. dollars in 2014. Cooperation in defence and security has made steady progress with the signing of the memorandum of understanding on bilateral defence cooperation in 2011 and particularly the joint vision statement on defence relations signed in Hanoi in June this year on the occasion of the visit to Vietnam by U.S. Secretary of Defence. Vietnam and the United States also enjoy good combination on many international and regional issues from non-proliferation, counterterrorism, climate change response, rising sea levels to maritime security, food security, nuclear security, maintaining peace, stability and promoting cooperation in the Asia Pacific region. Humanitarian cooperation including activities to address war legacy issues has been realised effectively by both sides. It is Vietnam's consistent policy to consider the accounting for American soldiers missing in action during the war in Vietnam a humanitarian issue where we will continue to engage in an effective cooperation within U.S. People-to-people ties have increasingly expanded and act as an important contributing factor to enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between two countries. The robust growth of Vietnam-U.S. relationship over the past 20 years has been grounded in the respect for the fundamental principles of international law, among these are respect for each other's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, political regime and cooperation for mutual benefit. Along the way over these 20 years, Vietnam and the U.S. have gradually achieved common ground of these principles and this is an important contributing factor to building political trust between the two countries. It can be asserted that the development of friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and the United States over the past 20 years is positive, follows the right direction and brings about practical benefits to both peoples. It is beneficial for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the Asia Pacific and the world. And this is the result of hard work by the leaders and people of both countries in the spirit of putting behind the past overcoming differences, maximizing commonalities and looking to the future. This is also an example for the success story of relations between two countries with different political backgrounds and it seems to be adversaries in the past, which is conducive to the trend of peace and cooperation of the time. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all statesmen, organizations and individuals from both Vietnam and the United States who have felt support and hard work has made significant contributions to promoting friendship and cooperation between our two countries. My special thanks go to American friends who have been actively assisting Vietnam during the years of war and those who always stand by our side to support the course of national development and national defense in our country. The accomplishments and lessons of the past 20 years gave us all reason for great optimism and expectation about the future of Vietnam-U.S. relations. Regarding Vietnam's policy, external relations policy in a fast-changing world, ladies and gentlemen, a fast and deeply changing world requires ourselves to be exposed to new ways of thinking and new ways of actions. Scientific and technological advances, cooperation and development trends, globalization and democratization are opening up new opportunities for prosperity and cooperation among nations. Economic and financial crisis along with social and humanitarian ones pose new demands for equitable and sustainable growth model for the economic relationship between nations and for the international economic order. Traditional and non-traditional security challenges including, among others, territorial disputes, terrorism, religious extremism, cybersecurity, aviation and maritime security have emerged in new forms affecting international peace, stability and development, hence requiring new mindsets and approaches to security. Environmental and ecological crisis, climate change, natural disasters and epidemics continue to unfold with complexity, posing new demands for production methods and people's way of life and for managing human relationship with nature in a globalized worldwide interdependence among nations is increasing both in terms of development and security. International law, mutual respect and cooperation among nations must be upheld more than ever before. The Asia Pacific, the world's most dynamic region embraces all the common features of the world while maintaining its unique attributes. While economic cooperation and integration are taking place vigorously with a huge variety of initiatives for intra- and extra-regional connectivity, challenges to peace, security and stability have become ever more acute, especially increasing tensions in maritime disputes. While economic interdependence among countries is increasing, our region lacks an efficient arrangement, mechanism or architecture for collective security to cope with emerging risks and challenges among which nationalism, religious extremism and unilateralism tend to rise. Against that context, all countries including Vietnam and United States are required to increase their interests and cooperation efforts for a region and a world of peace, security and prosperity. From the economic perspective, we support the cooperation models for equitable, sustainable and mutually beneficial development between countries. We support the initiatives to boost trade and investment to bring about equal benefits to all, especially to workers in all countries. We believe that the best way of cooperation is based on the principle of mutual reinforcement for shared development, helping narrow down development gaps among nations. From the political and security perspective, we support the friendship and equal cooperation between nations on the basis of respect for each other's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political regime, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with the UN Charter and International Law, non-use or threat of force. We support the formation of economic and security cooperation mechanisms among countries in the region and in the world in keeping with such principles. We support an Asia-Pacific region of peace, stability and cooperation for shared prosperity connected by inter and extra-regional economic linkages and economic cooperation for mutual benefit, having agreements and mechanisms to ensure common security, which we are of the view that upholding Asian centrality in evolving political and security architectures in the Asia-Pacific is conducive and beneficial to regional and international peace and security. We believe that the Asia-Pacific region offers enough opportunities to all countries in and outside the region, including the U.S., China, Japan, India, Russia and the EU. In that spirit, Vietnam continues to pursue a foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, multilateralization and diversification of external relations and proactive international integration. Vietnam has established diplomatic ties with over 180 countries, comprehensive partnership and strategic partnership with important partners in the region and the United States. We have acceded to many bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements which TPP with the United States and other partners is of great significance to Vietnam, the United States and to the entire Asia-Pacific region. Now on the future of Vietnam-U.S. relations, our two countries have established the comprehensive partnership. That's a very important premise for advancing bilateral ties over the coming years. Looking ahead, we need to work together to deepen and broaden the comprehensive partnership in order to lay the foundation for taking bilateral ties to the next level in the future. An important impetus to the Vietnam-U.S. that lies in the shared interests between our two countries. In my view, we shared many common interests. First, we have shared interests in promoting comprehensive cooperation for development and prosperity in each country and for the happiness of both peoples. Second, we have shared interests in advancing regional cooperation for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific. Particularly in maintaining peace, maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea on the basis of respect for international law. And third, we have shared interests in collaboration and coordination of efforts to contribute to the common global issues as a responsible member of the international community. I believe that a strong, prosperous, stable, independent and self-reliant Vietnam, fully integrated into the world and making responsible contributions to the international community is in the interests of peace, security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the world, and is conducive to the interests of the United States and countries in and outside the region. Looking ahead, we have much to do to advance the bilateral ties further forward. First and foremost, advancing mutual understanding, building and consolidating political trust between the leaders, the political circles and people from both countries are essential to deepen and broaden friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and the United States. To this end, we need to increase high-level exchanges and contacts to include legislative bodies and political parties and to expand consultation and dialogue mechanisms in the areas of mutual interest. This is one of the objectives of my visit to the United States this time and we are looking forward to welcoming President Barack Obama in Vietnam in the time to come. Yesterday, I offered an official invitation to President Obama and the First Lady for a visit to Vietnam and President Obama accepted my invitation with pleasure. Economic trade and investment cooperation remains the focus of bilateral ties and must be advanced further. So far, American investment in Vietnam remains modest and the United States is only ranked the seventh among countries and territories investing in Vietnam. The United States has yet to recognize Vietnam as a market economy and still imposes trade barriers that are good. And I do hope that with the conclusion of TPP in the time to come, it will give a strong boost to American investment in Vietnam and will facilitate trade between the two countries and facilitate trade between the United States and ASEAN including access of American exports to Vietnam as an emerging market of 90 million people and part of the larger ASEAN community of 600 million people. And U.S. recognition of Vietnam's market economy status is a necessary step toward that end. Cooperation in science, technology, education, training, health, environment and others is a red dot with huge potential in the bilateral relations. These are also areas closely related to the quality of sustainable development where Vietnam pays great attention to and the U.S. that can be shared with us. During my visit, Ho Chi Minh City will be licensed to the foundation of Fulbright University in Ho Chi Minh City. We encourage and call on American enterprises, universities, research institutes, organizations and individuals to increase investment in and cooperation with Vietnam in these areas. Cooperation in defense and security is an element contributing to enhancing trust and adding strategic values to bilateral ties which should be fostered based on appropriate steps in line with the interests of both countries. Both sides must continue to implement effectively the memorandum of understanding on bilateral and defense cooperation signed in 2011 and especially the joint vision statement on defense relations signed in Hanoi last June. At the same time, we should expand on law enforcement, counter-terrorism, maritime security and others to contribute to the maintenance of peace, stability and cooperation in the Asia Pacific. Cooperation on humanitarian issues must continue to be strongly promoted to help address more consequences and build trust and enhance friendship between the two people. As you all know, the consequences of war in Vietnam remain heavy until today. Many generations of Vietnamese are still struggling with the harsh consequences of the war. Over the past decades, many American organizations and individuals including all veterans have conducted practical activities to help Vietnam overcome war consequences. U.S. Congress has adopted annual funding to help address war legacy issues in Vietnam, including remediation of dialycin-contaminated hotspots and removal of unexploded ordnance. Nevertheless, the results achieve us to modest compared to the practical demands. And we believe that in order to put behind the past, we should work hand in hand in order to heal the wounds of war. And this is a very sensitive issue of both peoples and therefore the cooperation between Vietnam and the United States in an effective manner this issue will help strongly promote our bilateral ties. And people to people exchanges are essential to further enhance mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples. Our two countries share an uneasy history and I understand that many prejudices against Vietnam still exist in the United States. There are also now another truth that most Americans after visiting Vietnam have a more positive view towards our country and all are impressed by a vibrant, non-discriminatory and humane society and by the friendly, optimistic and open-minded Vietnamese. Over the past 20 years, our two countries have come to a better understanding of each other yet a full mutual understanding which is critical to building mutual trust and friendship must still be promoted. I do hope that both countries will work to strengthen contacts and exchanges for all channels particularly between the NGOs and the people towards that end. Another extremely important contributing factor to the bilateral ties is the large Vietnamese community in the United States and currently there are two million Americans of Vietnamese ancestry living in the United States. And the Vietnamese community in the United States is the largest Vietnamese community overseas which is making significant contributions to the development of the United States and also to the promotion of Vietnam-U.S. bilateral relations. So they are both Americans seated but also Vietnamese compatriots. And I do hope that the U.S. administration will continue to provide favorable conditions for the Vietnamese who are living, working and studying in the U.S. so that they can successfully integrate into the U.S. society and make positive contributions to prosperity of the U.S. and to Vietnam-U.S. relations. Human rights is an issue of great interest to the American people, a sensitive issue in Vietnam-U.S. relations. And I would like to affirm that Vietnam attaches great importance to human rights. Certainly there remain many limitations and problems in our country that we need to address including human rights but we are making efforts every day to strive for a better and better society for our people. And I understand that this is an issue where both countries should continue to work together through candid and constructive dialogue in order to reach a common ground on the human rights issue and in order to come up with a just assessment on the systematic and fundamental changes on the human rights situation in our country. This issue should not be allowed to become an obstacle to the growing momentum of our bilateral ties. Cooperation on regional and international issues to make positive contributions to international peace, security, stability and sustainable development is an increasingly important part of the bilateral ties. Vietnam is ready to increase coordination with the U.S. on international issues of mutual concern including with the United States and other countries to build ASEAN-U.S. relations into a strategic partnership with increasing significance to peace, stability and cooperation in the region, uphold ASEAN centrality, ensure the effectiveness of the ARF, ADMM plus, and make APEC play a more practical role in regional economic arrangements and turn the Asia Summit into an effective platform for handling strategic and political issues in the region. We highly appreciate the United States' increasing interest in the situation in the EC as well as its timely expression of consistent position in support of peaceful resolution of disputes on the basis of respect for international law, non-use or threat of force refraining from unilateral actions to change status quo, militarization or imposition of interests and aspects in the EC. Vietnam welcomes countries including the United States to play an active and responsible role in maintaining peace, security, stability, maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation and overfright and promoting development cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Ladies and gentlemen, the lessons of history and the accomplishments of the past 20 years have clearly shown that this is the only right choice for Vietnam-U.S. relations. It is beneficial for both countries conducive to the interest of both peoples and those of the region and the world. The differences that remain between our two countries reflect an objective and inevitable reality in a diverse world where all nations and try to seek and choose their own development path. The reality of the past 20 years has shown that our two countries share many common interests and differences cannot in any way be an obstacle to the growing friendship and cooperation between our two countries. In today's fast-changing world, the overlapping interests between our two countries have ever broadened. And looking ahead, the Vietnam-U.S. relations should move towards different and broadened, practical and effective partnership for peace, stability, cooperation and prosperity in the region and in the world. The experience and accomplishments of the past 20 years give us all reason for our conviction in that future. President Theodore Roosevelt has said and I quote I believe you can and you are halfway there. I believe that together we can build a bright vision for our future relations so that our two peoples and our children will always be good friends and partners of each other. Thank you for your attention. Mr. General Secretary, thank you very much for those comments. I know that you have time for a couple questions, so I'll try to stop the feedback here. And I'd like to open the floor to questions. To ask that you introduce yourself and your institution before you ask the question. I see a gentleman here. Rich, yep. The microphone will come in. Oh, thank you. General Secretary Chong, I'm Richard Cronin from the Stimson Center which is a nonprofit non-government think tank here in Washington that focuses on foreign policy really. You raised a number of very important issues in your speech and also called for some new thinking on both part of both countries about them. But looking ahead to the Congress that we held early next year, what do you think will be the most important domestic and foreign policy issues that will be addressed by that body? Thank you. The Communist Party Congress is one of the most important activity in the political life of the country. We hold the Party Congress every five years and each Congress would mark a historic milestone in the development process of the country. The 12-Party Congress is planned in early 2016. And as you may know the Communist Party of Vietnam was established over 80 years ago. At this Party Congress we will review the five-year implementation of the resolution of the 11-Party Congress and also review the implementation of the platform of 2011 and the implementation of the 2013 Constitution. On that basis we would also discuss the major trends in the world and the region and map out the long-term directions and policies of the next five years. Secondly, we will elect the next Central Committee which will be the leadership of the Party and we will elect in terms of the major issues that we will discuss we will continue our consideration about economic development considering economic development as the central part of our development and continue with the furthering implementation of the socio-economic development strategy until 2020. The central component of the economic development strategy will continue to be the reform of the development models, continue economic restructuring and at the same time taking care of the livelihoods of the people especially of the vulnerable and those living in mountainous remote areas. We will also try and discuss measures to further promote our international integration. Vietnam is now part of a lot of international economic integration organizations. In terms of political and social aspects we will continue to strengthen the Party the state apparatus and the entire political system including institutional reforms reforming our economic institutions further improving the legal system in line with the 2013 constitution. We would also spend a lot of time on discussing how to further strengthen the human resources in terms of defense and security this will continue to be our strategic objective to defend our sovereignty and to create the favorable conditions and peaceful and stable conditions for our development we will pay attention to numerous areas but in particular the South China Sea which in Vietnam we call East Sea and as I did mention in my remarks earlier we will continue with the foreign policy of diversification and multilateralization and the benefits of non-interference of equality and mutual benefits Vietnam is ready and willing to be a partner a friend and a constructive and responsible member of the international community in other areas we of course will discuss other issues but those were two topics that we will be discussing with the aim of ensuring that economic development is central and further strengthening the party is a long term important task for us thank you go over here Ambassador Keith thank you my name is Jim Keith I'm a retired American diplomat and currently with McClarty Associates and strategic business consulting from Mr. General Secretary you just focused in your remarks about the coming party congress on economic development and integration and in your remarks you mentioned the tremendous success in building the trade and relatively modest success so far on the investment side the relationships between our two countries could you expand a little bit about on those subjects and a remark on what it would take in the next month's years to come to boost trade and investment relations between our two countries thank you I did spend some time to talk about the Vietnam-U.S. relationship including our economic trade and investment relations I did mention that this is the foundation and the engine of the growth of our bilateral ties so this will continue to be our priority and over the past 20 years especially in the most recent years the economic trade and investment relations between the two countries have seen significant growth never before had we enjoyed such strong economic ties this has contributed to the prosperity of Vietnam to the importation in the capacity building and human resource development of Vietnam but as I also mentioned there is still a lot of potential for us to further boost our economic trade and investment relations it is my hope that with the strategic vision and what we have agreed during this visit this economic ties between our two countries will be further boosted in the immediate to look forward to the completion of the negotiations of the TPP the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the full realization of all commitments Vietnam in particular would like the United States to soon recognize the market economy status for Vietnam open up its market for more Vietnamese goods and remove all barriers which still exist today on its part Vietnam will open up our market to welcome American goods especially those of high technology density we also hope that America would help us develop our human resources in particularly given our current low level of development we look forward also to increased American investment for such a major economic power like the United States ranking 7 in terms of foreign investors in Vietnam is in my view quite low and there is still much much much more room for improvement on our part we would create the favorable conditions and the frameworks for better and more favorable conditions for American investors thank you Satu I miscalculated where he would speak Mr. General Secretary thank you for your remarks my name is Satu Lemay I'm the director of the East West Center an education research and exchange has many cooperative activities with Vietnam colleagues you referred to the joint statement the vision statement on defense and on maritime security I'd like to know more about what you foresee in terms of equipment and systems that Vietnam seeks from the United States and specific areas of bilateral cooperation regarding the issues of maritime security in the South China Sea what could we do together thank you sir the needs are huge our maritime cooperation Vietnam has 3000 kilometers of sea coast Vietnam considers our blue economy or sea economy as a major part of our socio economic development and this is closely linked with our efforts to defend and safeguard our sovereignty we have had good support between the two countries in this field in terms of defense and security we have signed the MOU on defense relations specifying the various areas of cooperation and we more recently signed the joint vision statement on defense relations with detailed actions to be taken I think that it's important for the two sides to further elaborate on these and realize these commitments I think for example oil and gas exploration is an area for cooperation potential further cooperation support and provision vessels for us or studies for environment protection and data gathering these are all areas that Vietnam solely needs further support we look forward to American success go back to Fred Frank thank you Mr. Secretary my name is Frank Genuzzi and I'm president of the Mansfield Foundation we're a small private foundation engaged in U.S. Asia cooperation you mentioned in your talk the importance of human rights in the U.S. Vietnam bilateral relationship there are many people in the United States of both political parties who are deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Vietnam I was pleased to lead a delegation from Amnesty International to your country a few years ago and I've noticed that over the last couple of years Vietnam has reduced the number of people arrested for the peaceful expression of their views I was wondering if you can speak to freedom of expression in Vietnam and whether this trend is one that we should expect to continue I recognize that human rights is an issue of great interest to the United States it is also an issue of interest for Vietnam and this is in fact protecting and promoting human rights is the main objective of our development as I mentioned in the statement earlier that in the opening sentence of the our declaration of independence that all men are created equal and they are endowed by the creators of unenviable rights so that is exactly what we are trying to do we want to ensure promote and protect the human rights of all people in Vietnam we have been doing our best and if you have been to Vietnam you would know that the issue of human rights relates to the vulnerable the poor those are living in mountainous areas and I think that never before had we had more democracy than we are having now our most recent constitution of 2013 there is a separate chapter on human rights and we are now improving and amending our laws to make them in line with this new constitution but at the same time we must recognize that the rights of each individual must be put in the context of the collective rights of the community so each person has a responsibility to defend and protect the rights of others and of the community I think every country has to manage and run their country in accordance with the law the cases that you mentioned for being detained are not because they are of a different ethnic minority or they are of a different religion that is not the cause the cause is because they violated the law I did have a very frank discussion on this issue with many religious leaders last night for example when there were complaints that there was no response to applications for religious activities I did have to say that it is the bureaucracy that is the problem it takes a lot of time for all approvals in all areas not only in this particular field I think that the understanding between the two countries is still quite different so the best way in my view is to increase dialogue and to agree on the measures for cooperation but we should not let this human rights issue be an obstacle to our relationship thank you Mr. General Secretary I'm getting a signal from your team that you have to move on to your next meeting but on behalf of CSIS and all of those collected here I'd like to thank you very much for your remarkable comments and your frank responses to the questions thank you very much this is the very best on the rest of your visit here in the United States