U.S. for 'mature' ties with Vietnam

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, MARCH 13. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Mr. William Cohen, today began a two-day diplomatic mission to Vietnam aimed at turning over a new leaf in bilateral ties, without harping on the bitter past of the 1975 war. Mr. Cohen held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Gen. Pham Van Tra, and the Communist nation's Prime Minister, Mr. Phan Van Khai.

The primary purpose of the visit, the first by a U.S. Defence Secretary since the end of the war, was normalisation of bilateral relationship. Though diplomatic ties were normalised in a juridical sense in 1995, the two are still far from a state of comprehensive relations.

The details of Mr. Cohen's parleys with the Vietnamese leaders were not immediately known. But the meetings, especially the key session with Gen. Pham Van Tra, set the tone for

Mr. Cohen's more immediate agenda of pushing the bilateral `cooperation' to a new level of `partnership' in searching for the nearly 2000 Americans still unaccounted for nearly a quarter century after the war.

An indication was that the new phase of `partnership' in this limited sphere could encompass a possible U.S. assistance to Vietnam in coming to terms with its own human losses in the war.

The tone and tenor of the talks encouraged the U.S. in its efforts to move towards the stated objective of attaining `maturity' in bilateral ties. The `comfort level' and the cordiality of the meetings also had much to do with this.

With the U.S. emphasising the prudence of looking to the future instead of evaluating the past and offering apologies to Hanoi for the war, the stage was also set for discussions on a new beginning in military-to-military cooperation.

The immediate focus was confined to the non-sensitive areas such as the clearance of war-time mines in Vietnam, medical help for the problems caused by the harmful chemicals used during the war and flood-control measures.

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Section  : International
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