US embassy cable - 05HANOI3053

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 003053 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, AMGT, PREF, VM, ASEAN, VN, WTO, HUMANR, RELFREE, AFLU, APEC 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR AND VFM LE VAN BANG DISCUSS AI, WTO, 
HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE, OTHER SUBJECTS 
 
Ref: A. Hanoi 3031 B. Ho Chi Minh City 1202 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Over lunch with Vice Foreign Minister Le 
Van Bang, the Ambassador covered a comprehensive array of 
bilateral issues, focusing heavily on the recent GVN ban on 
imported poultry products and Vietnam's bid to enter the 
WTO.  VFM Bang accepted the proposal to hold the Human 
Rights Dialogue during the week of January 9, but asked that 
we confirm the date solidly so he can make the rest of his 
travel plans.  The Ambassador strongly urged VFM Bang to 
have Vietnam play a leadership role in encouraging other 
ASEAN members to accept a meeting with President Bush in 
Busan, and to taking positive action on the Enhanced 
Partnership as soon as possible.  On the subject of human 
rights, VFM Bang noted that 2005 was Vietnam's 60th 
anniversary and therefore many prisoners received amnesties. 
The coming year, 2006, will not have such extensive 
amnesties, or possibly any at all, he said.  The Ambassador 
and the Vice Minister also discussed humanitarian 
resettlement, law enforcement cooperation, nonproliferation, 
the new Embassy compound and an American Humanitarian 
Efforts Memorial.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) The Ambassador met with Vice Foreign Minister Le 
Van Bang at the EMR November 16 at the Ambassador's request. 
Bang was not his usual talkative self due to a recent 
infection that had caused him to miss a day of work, and he 
was not as well prepared for the meeting as he has been in 
previous encounters. 
 
HUMANITARIAN RESETTLEMENT/REPATRIATION 
-------------------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) The Ambassador noted that he had recently signed 
the Humanitarian Resettlement Public Information Outreach 
Agreement with Director General Bui Dinh Dzinh that would 
ensure consideration for resettlement in the United States 
for those who had missed the opportunity to do so in the 
past.  VFM Bang wondered aloud how many of those people 
might still be in Vietnam.  The Ambassador said another 
significant and related issue is Vietnam's willingness to 
accept its citizens who are expelled from the United States. 
U.S. law contains provisions that could require the 
Department of State to suspend granting visas for Vietnamese 
citizens if the GVN does not accept its citizens back, the 
Ambassador noted.  Implementation of this provision could 
seriously harm relations, he warned. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE 
--------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) VFM Bang asked the Ambassador to confirm the 
proposed dates for the Human Rights Dialogue.  Holding the 
dialogue the week of January 9, 2006, is acceptable, he 
said, but he asked the Ambassador to guarantee that this 
will be the date for the dialogue.  VFM Bang explained that 
he has a busy travel schedule in December and January, and 
wants to be sure to be in Hanoi to represent Vietnam in the 
dialogue.  The Ambassador noted that the United States hopes 
to use the dialogue to lay the groundwork for a visit by 
Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom John Hanford. 
Over the next six months, the Ambassador suggested, Vietnam 
can identify the areas of progress in religious freedom, 
ideally providing a province-by-province report.  That would 
make the Human Rights Dialogue an opportunity to educate the 
United States about Vietnam's steps forward in protecting 
religious freedom, a key element of the U.S. decision on 
whether or not to keep Vietnam on the Country of Particular 
Concern (CPC) list. 
 
5. (SBU) VFM Bang volunteered the Vice Foreign Minister 
Nguyen Phu Binh was very happy with the positive outcome of 
the Ambassador's California meetings with the Vietnamese- 
American community.  Other nations with sizeable overseas 
Vietnamese communities should follow the United States' lead 
and have the same sorts of meetings, Bang said.  The 
Ambassador ascribed his successful meetings to changing 
attitudes in the Vietnamese communities of the United States 
and increased efforts by the GVN to reach out to Vietnamese 
Americans. 
 
AVIAN INFLUENZA, THE POULTRY BAN AND WTO 
---------------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) On the subject of Avian Influenza, the Ambassador 
raised his strong concerns regarding the GVN's decision to 
ban all poultry imports into Vietnam, including uncooked 
chicken from the United States.  The decision, he said, has 
no scientific basis and could run afoul of international 
trade rules.  VFM Bang said that the poultry ban is having a 
negative impact on food prices, as households who usually 
eat chicken are forced to substitute more expensive meats. 
The Ambassador noted that substituting frozen U.S. chicken 
would be an even better solution.  VFM Bang said that 
educating both the government and consumers would be 
important in this issue.  He promised to take the issue to 
the Deputy Prime Minister level. 
 
7. (SBU) The Ambassador noted that the poultry ban is the 
kind of decision that could negatively affect Vietnam's 
effort to join the WTO, because domestic poultry is not 
subject to the same restrictions.  The Ambassador added that 
the U.S. WTO negotiating team is waiting for the Vietnamese 
side's latest submission.  VFM Bang said that the 
realization that Vietnam would not make its self-imposed 
deadline for WTO entry by the December ministerial in Hong 
Kong had sapped motivation for interagency cooperation on 
the Vietnamese side.  The Prime Minister recently made a 
decision to go forward to try to finish negotiations, and so 
Vietnam hopes to have another meeting in November or 
December.  The Ambassador said that the U.S. side needs at 
least three weeks to review any updated proposal from 
Vietnam and consult within the USG and with Congress and 
American business.  If Vietnam hopes to hold a meeting in 
November or December, it needs to table its revised offers 
and other submissions immediately.  It might be possible to 
hold another round of discussions this quickly, but only if 
Vietnam is prepared to submit significantly improved offers 
right away. 
 
8. (SBU) VFM Bang said he understands this, and that Vietnam 
is also ready to dispatch another high-level official, a 
"special envoy," shortly after the meeting in November or 
December who will have "something in his pocket" to get the 
two sides to the conclusion stage.  It would be great if 
this can happen by late December or early January, VFM Bang 
said, to make sure that the WTO discussions don't drag on 
into the Party Congress scheduled for the second quarter of 
2006.  The Ambassador said the possibility of a special 
envoy being able to wrap up bilateral negotiations soon 
depends entirely on how close the two sides are when Vietnam 
submits its latest revised offer.  VFM Bang mentioned that 
Vietnam and Australia have "almost finished" their bilateral 
negotiations.  He also added that the public comments of the 
Vietnamese Ambassador to the UN in Geneva regarding the lack 
of U.S. goodwill in negotiating with Vietnam on WTO entry 
had been "unapproved and out of order." 
 
APEC IN BUSAN AND THE ENHANCED PARTNERSHIP 
------------------------------------------ 
 
9. (SBU) VFM Bang asked the Ambassador if President Bush 
will meet with Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong at the 
APEC summit in Busan, South Korea.  The Ambassador noted 
that they would probably sit next to each other at several 
APEC events due to alphabetization, and that President Bush 
hopes to meet all of the ASEAN-7 heads of state in one 
meeting.  He asked VFM Bang for Vietnam's support in making 
that meeting happen.  VFM Bang said Vietnam will "join the 
ASEAN consensus" on the decisions to meet with President 
Bush and whether to release the ASEAN Enhanced Partnership 
Initiative document.  The Ambassador suggested that Vietnam 
is in a position to take a leadership role and drive the 
consensus, rather than simply joining it.  He explained that 
Busan is an opportunity for the United States and ASEAN to 
deepen their relations and generate a public commitment to 
the Enhanced Partnership.  Losing this opportunity will 
forfeit some of the momentum we have generated in recent 
months, which would be unfortunate.  VFM Bang mentioned that 
Vietnam wants to host a U.S.-ASEAN summit in Hanoi during 
APEC next year.  The Ambassador replied that this is an 
issue separate from the plans for Busan and for the Enhanced 
Partnership, but that Vietnam would benefit from continued 
forward progress in U.S.-ASEAN relations. 
 
LAW ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION AND NONPROLIFERATION 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
10. (SBU) The Ambassador raised two U.S. priorities:  law 
enforcement cooperation and the Proliferation Security 
Initiative.  VFM Bang said that Vietnam has been busy on the 
nonproliferation front, signing on to the APEC MANPADS 
initiative, attending and co-hosting the APEC Export Control 
Conference, working on ratification of the CTBT and signing 
Article Seven of the CWC.  PSI, however, is still under 
consideration.  On law enforcement cooperation, VFM Bang 
welcomed the progress the visiting FBI team (Ref A) made 
with its counterparts from the Ministry of Public Security, 
but said that "it is too soon to say that we have improved 
law enforcement cooperation to the same level as the rest of 
the relationship." 
AMERICAN HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS MEMORIAL 
-------------------------------------- 
 
11. (SBU) The Ambassador raised the issue of establishing an 
"American Humanitarian Efforts Memorial" that would 
memorialize the humanitarian efforts of American doctors, 
nurses and civilian volunteers, as well as soldiers, during 
the Vietnam War.  VFM Bang said that this idea has been 
under consideration from both sides for at least ten years, 
but that it faces significant obstacles.  The various 
stakeholders, including U.S. veterans, Vietnamese veterans 
and veterans of the former South Vietnamese Army all have to 
be taken into consideration.  He said he does not think that 
a traditional memorial would be acceptable to Vietnam, but 
that a school or hospital named in honor of those 
humanitarian efforts might win consensus. 
 
NEW EMBASSY COMPOUND 
-------------------- 
 
12. (SBU) The Ambassador advised VFM Bang that even though 
four months have passed since the United States and the 
Hanoi People's Committee came to agreement on the general 
issues surrounding the development of a new site for a U.S. 
Embassy compound, the record of that conversation remains in 
doubt.  Although the Vietnamese side agreed then, now it 
will not sign the minutes, and is asking for significant 
changes to the agreed text, including raising the agreed 
price ceiling.  The Ambassador informed VFM Bang that the 
USG cannot approve the move of the Vietnamese Consulate in 
San Francisco until the matter of the U.S. Embassy Compound 
site is addressed in a mutually acceptable fashion.  VFM 
Bang promised to raise this issue with the Prime Minister. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS DISSIDENTS AND AMNESTIES 
------------------------------------- 
 
13. (SBU) The Ambassador noted that Vietnamese dissident 
Hoang Minh Chinh recently returned to Vietnam after visiting 
the United States for medical treatment (Ref B).  Other than 
a three-hour interrogation on arrival at the airport in Ho 
Chi Minh City, authorities in Vietnam have not molested him, 
the Ambassador acknowledged.  Vietnam generated a great deal 
of goodwill by allowing the 87-year old Chinh to travel to 
the United States and by addressing his statements against 
Vietnam through rebuttal in the newspaper rather than 
coercive action.  VFM Bang claimed to have no knowledge of 
recent developments related to Chinh.  Regarding dissidents, 
however, he warned the Ambassador that 2006 will not have 
any of the "grand amnesties" that characterized 2005.  The 
year 2005 is special because it is the 60th anniversary of 
the founding of Vietnam, and so many more prisoners received 
amnesties.  There will be no similar large-scale amnesties 
in 2006, VFM Bang said, but individual prisoners may still 
see sentence reductions or even releases. 
 
THE YEAR AHEAD 
-------------- 
 
14. (SBU) VFM Bang noted that 2006 will be another big year 
for the United States and Vietnam.  In addition to the APEC 
summit in Hanoi in 2006, there will be a visit by President 
Bush to Vietnam and the United States and Vietnam will both 
experience elections (a reference to the tenth Vietnamese 
Party Congress).  Other high-level visits will also occur 
that will require planning and work.  In fact, 2006 can be 
considered "America Year" in Vietnam, VFM Bang said.  Among 
other visitors, Vietnam hopes to welcome EAP A/S Christopher 
Hill.  If A/S Hill cannot come to Vietnam, VFM Bang said, it 
is possible that VFM Bang could go to Washington to meet 
him.  The Ambassador and VFM Bang agreed that the Embassy 
should work closely with the MFA to anticipate and plan for 
the schedule of visitors and bilateral events in 2006. 
 
MARINE