U.S. President Obama meets with Vietnam Prime Minister and Party Chief

May 23, 2016 | 03:21 am PT
U.S. President Obama meets with Vietnam Prime Minister and Party Chief
President Obama met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in the afternoon May 23. : VNA
President Obama continued his series of bilateral talks with Vietnam’s top leaders by meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc this afternoon at the Office of the Government in Hanoi.

After his talks with Phuc, Obama attended his final meeting of the day with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, as scheduled on his three-day visit.

Earlier in the morning, Obama met with President Tran Dai Quang and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan at the house where Ho Chi Minh used to live, where the U.S. president helped to feed the fish in Uncle Ho's pond with the US delegation and Vietnamese officials.

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U.S. President Barack Obama (left) attends a meeting with Vietnam's Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the Central Office of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi. photo by REUTERS/Carlos Barria

In a joint press conference, Obama said Washington had agreed to fully lift “the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some 50 years”. The lifting of the lethal arms ban is the most important initiative that the two countries have announced so far during Obama’s visit.

Obama is the third U.S. president to visit Vietnam since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1995. He is being accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and an entourage of around 800 people.

 
 
 
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