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Obama to make historic visit to Vietnam

United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama left Washington yesterday for his first visit to Vietnam, a trip aimed at sealing the transformation ...
US president Barack Obama walks down from the Airforce One as he landed at Hanoi's international Noi Bai airport on May 22, 2016. HOANG DINH NAM / POOL / AFP

US president Barack Obama walks down from the Airforce One as he landed at Hanoi’s international Noi Bai airport on May 22, 2016.<br />HOANG DINH NAM / POOL / AFP

United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama left Washington yesterday for his first visit to Vietnam, a trip aimed at sealing the transformation of an old enemy into a new partner to help counter China’s growing assertiveness.

Four decades after the Vietnam War, Obama was expected use the visit to deepen defence and economic ties with the country’s communist government.

“What we want to demonstrate with this visit is a significant upgrade in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam … even as we have areas of difference,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told the Reuters news agency.

Pressure has mounted on Obama to use the landmark three-day visit, which begins today, to roll back a 32-year-old arms embargo on Hanoi, one of the last vestiges of wartime animosity.

Lifting the ban – something Vietnam has long wanted – would anger Beijing, which resents U.S. efforts to forge stronger military bonds with its smaller neighbours at a time of rising tensions in the disputed South China Sea.

But there was no immediate word of a final U.S. decision.

The visit comes just days after Chinese fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon said was an “unsafe” intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance plane in the South China Sea. Beijing is pursuing territorial claims there that conflict with those of Vietnam and several other countries.

In a separate development, Vietnam showcased its five-yearly day of democracy yesterday with an election for a parliament tightly controlled by a Communist Party that is seeing unprecedented challenges to a four-decade monopoly.

Some 69 million Vietnamese are registered to vote to choose representatives for a 500-seat National Assembly. In Vietnamese elections, the ballot traditionally comprised candidates representing the communist party but this year, scores of activists, celebrities and ordinary Vietnamese tried to run as independent candidates.

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