FED: Howard seeking stronger ties with Vietnam

AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-1999
FED: Howard seeking stronger ties with Vietnam

CANBERRA, April 1 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard hopes his meetings today with Vietnamese
leader Phan Van Khai will forge closer ties between Australia and Vietnam.

But members of Australia's 140,000-strong Vietnamese community plan to mark the visit with
demonstrations outside Parliament House, where Mr Khai will be feted at an official luncheon.

Mr Howard said this week he was looking forward to the visit as a chance to explore new
areas for growth and cooperation between the two countries.

"Mr Khai's visit is an opportunity to discuss issues of common interest to our countries,"
Mr Howard said.

"We are both members of APEC. We both have an interest in the earliest recovery of Asian
economies and, for that reason, in economic reform and improved financial sector management in
our region."

The visit is the first to Australia by a senior Vietnamese official since 1995 when Mr
Howard, who was then opposition leader, snubbed visiting Vietnamese Communist party chief Mr
Do Muoi.

Both Mr Howard and his foreign affairs spokesman and now minister Alexander Downer, refused
to attend a lunch for Mr Do Muoi.

Mr Downer held private talks, but later became embroiled in a row after the Vietnamese
delegation disputed his claim that he had used the talks to raise human rights concerns.

Shortly after the change of government another row erupted when Mr Downer tried to cancel
aid funding for the Mekong Bridge - Australia's single biggest aid project.

However relations have improved in recent months, partly due to economic reforms in Vietnam
which have dramatically expanded trade between the two countries, and Vietnam's success, along
with Australia, in avoiding the Asian economic crisis.

AAP sc/gl

KEYWORD: VIETNAM AUST DAYLEAD

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