Vu huy hoang biography of barack obama

Southeast Asia from Scott Circle: Sunnylands Summit Provides Opportunity to Bolster U.S.-Southeast Asia Ties

President Barack Obama will host leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries for a summit at the lush Sunnylands retreat in southern California on February 15 and 16 in a gesture aimed at deepening U.S. ties to this dynamic region. The president raised the idea of the meeting with Southeast Asian leaders at the U.S.-ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in November 2015, during which he and his ASEAN counterparts announced the upgrading of U.S.-ASEAN relations to a strategic partnership. The leaders will look to flesh out the ASEAN-U.S. Plan of Action 2016–2020 that they endorsed at the summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Southeast Asia has been a focal point of the U.S. rebalance to Asia, which was announced soon after Obama took office in 2009. The Sunnylands venue is intended to provide a more relaxed atmosphere than a formal summit in Washington would. Ironically, this is the same retreat center where Obama hosted Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013; the upcoming summit is likely to keep China on its toes, as Beijing is vying with Washington for influence and hearts and minds in Southeast Asia.

U.S. officials say the president is looking to bolster economic, political, security, and people-to-people ties with the region when he meets the ASEAN leaders.

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Obama’s “Déjà vu” Vietnam Diplomacy

A high-stakes diplomatic drama is playing out between the United States and Vietnam. While the focus is on enhancing bilateral economic ties in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, the economics are also related to broader security- and human rights issues. This article has some fresh news to report on what’s going on behind the scenes: What the ruling Politburo in Hanoi has decided about deepening its economic ties with the major powers. What Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and U.S. President Barack Obama had to say to each other during their July 25 White House meeting in the Oval Office. Who else was in the room — and why that was important.

There is also background information to report that sheds light on the intense pressures that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has been bringing to bear on Vietnam, notably last week in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. On Aug. 22-23, Froman had private talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Vu Huy Hoang, on the sidelines of the 19 round of the TPP trade talks, which are continuing this week in Brunei. Washington has been playing an intimidation game, pressuring Hanoi to accept an economic deal that is clearly not in Vietnam’s best interests — and just might get away with it.

But it’s not the hard news that captivates, but rather, the déjà vu feeling of another historical turning point in U.S.-Vietnamese relations. On Aug 30, 1945 — 68 years to the day, it turns out, that the TPP’s 19 round of negotiations will conclude this Friday in Brunei — Ho Chi Minh wrote the first of several letters to U.S. President Harry Truman. Uncle Ho sought Truman’s support for Vietnamese aspirations to gain independence from French colonial rule. The letters went unanswered, as the Truman administration’s higher priority involved helping the French recover from the devastations of World War II.

“In historical terms, it was

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong

Pritzker, an Obama fundraiser

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President Barack Obama will host leaders

Image: Party Chief holds talks with US President at the Oval Office

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and US President Barrack Obama held talks at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in the morning of July 7 (local time).

Vietnamese delegates attending the talks included Tong Thi Phong – Politburo member and National Assembly Vice Chairwoman; Le Thanh Hai – Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee; Tran Quoc Vuong – Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chief of the Party Central Committee’s Office; Pham Binh Minh – member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister; Hoang Binh Quan – member of the Party Central Committee and Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations; Vu Huy Hoang – member of the Party Central Committee and Minister of Industry and Trade; and Pham Quang Vinh – Vietnamese Ambassador to the US.

On the US side there were Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew, Trade Representative Michael Froman, and US Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius.

President Obama welcomed the US official visit by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation. He stressed that the US attaches special importance to its relations with Vietnam and the latter’s role in the Asian-Pacific region, expressing his hope for stronger bilateral relations in the time ahead in the interest of the two countries and the region.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed Vietnam’s consistent and long-term policy of treasuring the development of relations with the US. The full implementation and continuous intensification of their comprehensive partnership in the principle of respecting each other’s independence, sovereignty and political regime without interference into each other’s internal affairs is the foundation to build up trust and forward bilateral ties