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Clinton's Vietnam Visit to Contribute to Bilateral Relations: Luong
Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong said he believed that US President Bill Clinton's visit to Vietnam would contribute to further developing the Vietnam-US relations in the economic and commercial areas for the benefits of each country.
Luong made the remarks here Friday while meeting with visiting the US president, who arrived here last night for a four-day official visit, the first by an American president to Vietnam.
Luong, who on Friday held a state ceremony in honor of Clinton and his wife at the Presidential Palace here, expressed his welcome of the visit by President Clinton, his wife and other members of the US delegation, regarding it as an important event conforming to the aspiration and interests of the two peoples.
Clinton expressed pleasure with his first visit to Vietnam and thanked Vietnamese President Luong and the Vietnamese State, Government and people for their warm welcome.
The US President spoke highly of the new steps of development in the cooperative relations between the two countries.
He expressed his belief that his visit would help the two sides promote mutual understanding and expand the bilateral cooperative ties in all areas.
Also in the morning, President Luong held talks with his US counterpart
The talks were followed by the signing of an agreement on science and technology cooperation between the governments of Vietnam and the United States and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the US Department of Labor.
On the same day, Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh also met with a US congressional delegation that accompanied Clinton on his visit to Vietnam.
Manh said that Vietnam and the United States have witnessed progress in their bilateral relations, and that the signing of the bilateral trade agreement in July 2000 marked new step of development in the relations between the two nations.
Manh said he hoped that the cooperation between the two legislative bodies would be continuously strengthened, thus contributing to bettering mutual understanding between the two peoples and promoting the relations between the two countries.
After the meeting, the US congressmen attended a plenary session of the Vietnamese National Assembly at the Ba Dinh Conference Hall.
Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton visited Vietnam National University on Friday afternoon. Clinton made a speech at the university to hope the two countries to "continue to help each other heal the wounds of war".
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