US embassy cable - 05HANOI2763

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 002763 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, VM, ASEAN, APEC 
SUBJECT: VIETNAM ON ENHANCED PARTNERSHIP: GO SLOW 
 
REF: STATE 192644 
 
1. (SBU) Summary and Comment:  The GVN responded rapidly to 
the U.S. draft Declaration on a U.S.-ASEAN Enhanced 
Partnership.  Vietnam feels that Busan is coming up much too 
soon to allow ASEAN and the United States to reconcile the 
two competing draft declarations (ASEAN has one, completed 
during an ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur last week) of the 
Enhanced Partnership declaration.  The Foreign Ministry 
believes that the U.S.-preferred "ASEAN Seven" formulation 
will not prevail in the face of ASEAN's commitment to 
consensus and universality.  The MFA representative made a 
strong pitch that the declaration should wait until the 
"ASEAN-U.S. Summit" in November 2006 in Hanoi, an event that 
Vietnam has proposed but that we have yet to accept.  It was 
clear from our conversations with the MFA in the last two 
days that the GVN is fixated on the ASEAN-U.S. Summit's 
being held in Vietnam next year at the time of the APEC 
summit.  That might be a possible bit of leverage to use to 
convince the GVN to support the signing of the Enhanced 
Partnership declaration in Busan.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
2. (SBU) Poloff met with ASEAN Section Chief Vu Ho October 
19 to deliver reftel points and the draft Declaration on the 
U.S.-ASEAN Enhanced Partnership.  Vu Ho complained that the 
United States did not provide enough time to review a 
document that was ultimately going to have to receive the 
Prime Minister's approval, but agreed to shepherd it through 
the GVN as quickly as possible to try to generate some 
comment before the USG's October 20 deadline. 
 
3. (SBU) On October 20 MFA's Deputy Director General for 
ASEAN Nguyen Tien Minh met with Charge and Poloff to deliver 
Vietnam's initial reaction to the draft declaration.  He 
said that Vietnam "welcomes" the U.S. proposal, and is glad 
to see that the U.S. draft coincides with the release of an 
ASEAN draft declaration, which was just completed during the 
ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) in Kuala Lumpur the 
week of October 17.  The United States and ASEAN members 
"have the same will and intention," he said. 
 
4. (SBU) At the SOM, the officials present discussed the 
importance of enhanced and accelerated relations with the 
United States, Minh said.  The ASEAN Secretariat had drafted 
a declaration to be presented to the United States at the 
Informal Coordination Mechanism (ICM) meeting in Hawaii. 
 
5. (SBU) Minh said that in reviewing the U.S. draft, he was 
surprised that the United States is proposing to sign the 
declaration in Busan during the APEC summit.  The time 
remaining before the summit is "too short" to achieve 
agreement and consensus on the declaration text, he opined, 
and noted that for ASEAN, the signing of the declaration 
would require the presence of all members, not just the 
seven who are part of APEC. 
 
6. (SBU) In addition to the declaration, holding a U.S.- 
ASEAN summit is also very important, Minh said.  "It would 
have great significance, and both the summit and the 
declaration signing should happen together."  He noted that 
Assistant Foreign Minister Nguyen Trung Thanh had proposed 
in the August ASEAN-U.S. meeting in Washington that an ASEAN- 
U.S. summit occur on the margins of the APEC summit in Hanoi 
in November 2006.  "That would give us the time to craft a 
good, mutually acceptable declaration," he stated.  In 
addition, the November 2006 date would be auspicious because 
it falls close to 2007, the year when ASEAN and the United 
States will celebrate the 30th anniversary of relations. 
 
7. (SBU) Busan, he said, would not work for this 
declaration.  There is too much to accomplish too soon, and 
the lack of participation of Burma, Cambodia and Laos would 
be a problem for ASEAN.  It would be such a problem, he 
predicted, that should ASEAN agree to a signing at Busan, it 
would fly in the leaders of the three non-APEC economies to 
ensure that ASEAN is represented completely.  He recalled 
that ASEAN had canceled its participation in he ASEM 
Economic Ministers' meeting in the Netherlands this year 
because Holland imposed an EU-mandated visa ban on high- 
level Burmese officials.  "This should demonstrate how 
committed ASEAN is to universality and consensus," he said. 
8. (SBU) Privately, and not for the consumption of other 
ASEAN members, Minh stressed how beneficial for U.S.-Vietnam 
bilateral relations it would be for the signing to occur 
during an ASEAN Summit held in Hanoi during the 2006 APEC 
Summit.  "This would be very significant for both of our 
countries."  He also promised to discuss the issue with the 
Vietnamese delegation in Hawaii led by Deputy Director 
General for ASEAN Nguyen Hong Cong. 
 
BOARDMAN