VietNamNet Bridge – “The USA and China still maintains good relations and we continue exchange high-ranking visits. Of course, I talk about it when the ties between the USA and Vietnam and with the remaining part of Southeast Asia are being strengthened and developed, and the presence and involvement of the USA in Southeast Asia is clearer and deeper. All aim to ensure a stable and prosper future in this region,” said Ambassador David Shear.
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Huynh
Phan: Back to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
agreement, did you meet the chief TPP negotiator of Vietnam?
Ambassador
David Shear: Yes. I visited him after I came to Hanoi.
But the person whom he has to meet very often is the chief negotiator of the
US.
Huynh
Phan: Barbara Weisel? I saw her the first time in
2006, when she was a member of the US mission to negotiate Vietnam’s WTO
membership.
Ambassador
Shear: I met Weisel when I was in Kuala Lumpur. At
that time, we were negotiating the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Malaysia.
But when TPP was formed, it covered that FTA so we stopped and Malaysia joined
the TPP.
Huynh
Phan: And the second time was last summer when
Weisel and the US Deputy Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis went to
Vietnam to persuade Vietnamese officials to join TPP negotiation as a full
member.
That day Marantis told me that you prepared
the speech for Senator Max Baucus at the Asian Association, which was very
famous during the process of calling for the Permanent Normal Trade Relations
(PNTR) for Vietnam. Because Marantis worked for two years in Vietnam as a
lawyer for the US-Vietnam Trade Council of Ginny Foote.
Ambassador
Shear: Wow, you have learnt very carefully about
Vietnam-US negotiation? Did you attend the Gala dinner after the workshop on
ten years of BTA?
Marantis positively took part in the
US-Vietnam BTA. At that Gala Dinner, a video clip with Marantis’ speech was
screened.
The Gala Dinner was the chance for almost all
people of both sides, who participated in the BTA negotiation, to meet each
others.
BTA is a good agreement but the two countries
should not stop there, but we need to continue building a more strategic and
stable economic relation and TPP is the best way to realize it.
Huynh
Phan: Besides promoting economic relations between
the two countries, what are priorities in your term in Vietnam?
Ambassador
Shear: Economic priority includes promoting TPP
negotiation and exports of US to Vietnam. The two-way trade is expected to
exceed $20 billion in 2011.
I also want to stimulate US investment in
Vietnam. I’ve visited some American factories in Vietnam. Each factory employs
hundreds of Vietnamese workers.
My second priority is speeding up the
establishment of strategic partnership between the two sides.
The third priority is building better ties
between the two people, focusing on education, healthcare and environment.
Another priority is human right dialogues,
when we still have difference in this area. But I think that we and Vietnamese
partners can continue discussion to diminish difference.
Huynh
Phan: Do you think that there is a big difference
between the way of thinking of Western and Asian people?
Ambassador
Shear: They are different from each others firstly
in lifestyle and then the way of thinking. But if we really want to and try to
understand each others, we will understand each others. I think that instead of
any difference, from the very deep of us, we still have common things to
communicate with each others and finally, we will understand each others.
Huynh
Phan: Each ambassador defines his own priorities
and the way of approach to achieve his goals. How is your approach?
Ambassador
Shear: I think the best way to achieve the goals is
building mutual-trust at the highest level between me and Vietnamese officials
who I have to work with. Going to provinces like this is also a way to build
mutual-trust.
Huynh
Phan: I’m really curious that about the two places
that you visit today. One is the HIV/AIDS Prevention Centre and the museum.
Ambassador
Shear: (Smile) We have a project to help detect and
prevent HIV/AIDS throughout Vietnam and we spend around $6 million in this project.
So when I visited Thai Binh, I had to go to the center where this project is
implemented.
The museum is related to the Ambassador
Foundation on Culture Heritage Preservation, a global program of the US
Department of State. I participate in many projects in Vietnam and I’m waiting
to see the results.
Huynh
Phan: You have been to some provinces and cities
of Vietnam. Do you see big difference among them?
Ambassador
Shear: The more I travel, the more diversification
of culture, ethnic groups… in Vietnam that I see. So every trip is interesting.
For example, I’ve been to Son La in the northwestern region, Bac Lieu in the
Mekong River Delta and today I went to Thai Binhof the Red River Delta, to see
the difference in lifestyle, culture, etc. I think that that diversification
has created the contemporary face of Vietnam.
Huynh
Phan: What do you think after the visit to Thai
Binh Museum?
Ambassador
Shear: That’s a plentiful collection of historical
relics. And I’m very happy to cooperate with the museum to preserve those
cultural heritages. That’s a good project and I will keep an eye on it.
Huynh
Phan: Back to your career. Is Japan the first
countries where you worked as a diplomat?
Ambassador
Shear: Yes. After that I returned to Washington. In
the late 1980s I went to the US Embassy in Beijing. I returned to Washington
again and then went to Tokyo and after that to Malaysia…
Huynh
Phan: What cultural characters of each culture
where you have been lived and worked as a diplomat, from Japan to China,
Malaysia and Vietnam?
Ambassador
Shear: It is difficult. Though they are all in
Asia, even in East Asia but they have different characters. For example,
Japanese has been a sea power. They are extremely diligent.
China was a colony for a long time and it was
also the home to revolutions for a long time. That’s why they have been so
interested in developing economics in recent decades. Certainly, the Chinese
have great ambition and national pride.
Vietnamese people are also very diligent,
hard-working and give prominence to education. That’s the way the American see
Vietnamese through Vietnamese students in the US. So I have said that Vietnam
sends to the US many good ambassadors.
Americans who have been to Vietnam are
surprised about economic development in Vietnam. In general, they are
satisfactory.
Huynh
Phan: Do you think that Chinese’s national pride
is a bit excessive today?
Ambassador
Shear: I think that they have grounds to be proud
of their nation because they have passed a long way since they conducted
reforms and opened their door in the late 1970s. I do not doubt that the
Chinese economy and society will continue developing.
The US and China still maintains good
relations and we continue exchange high-ranking visits. Of course, I talk about
it when the ties between the USA and Vietnam and with the remaining part of
Southeast Asia are being strengthened and developed, and the presence and
involvement of the USA in Southeast Asia is clearer and deeper. All aim to
ensure a stable and prosper future in this region.
Huynh
Phan: Today, you are a state diplomat or a
representative of US people?
Ambassador
Shear: Both. When I met with Thai Binh’s officials
or signed a financial assistance agreement for the local museum, I was a state
diplomat. When talked or took photo with the museum’s employees or when we
talked in the coffee shop, I was a representative of the US people.
Huynh
Phan: You have been in Vietnam for only four
months but it sounds that you understand Vietnam very clearly. Did you talk
with experts about Vietnam before you came here?
Ambassador
Shear: Yes. I had an interesting meeting.
In late July, after I was ratified as the US
Ambassador to Vietnam, the Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Le Quoc Cuong
invited me to the Vietnamese Embassy to talk with his experts about the
Vietnam-US relations. I’m grateful to Ambassador Cuong for that meeting because
I got a lot of useful information. We have been still maintained periodical
exchange and Mr. Cuong has helped me a lot.
Huynh
Phan: Have you still kept contact with your
Vietnamese language tutor?
Ambassador
Shear: Who?
Huynh
Phan: Senator Jim Webb.
Ambassador
Shear: (Laugh) Senator Jim Webb paid a visit to
Vietnam only one day after I went to Hanoi to assume office. My first important
mission as the US Ambassador was accompanying him for three days to important
meetings. But that was the best way for me to be introduced to Vietnamese
colleagues and to understand more about Senator Jim Webb. They were the three
memorable days in my life.
Huynh
Phan: What do your Vietnamese colleagues in
Washington who you met before think about the prospect of the US-Vietnam
relations?
Ambassador
Shear: We both agreed that the US-Vietnam relations
have made great progress in the last 2-3 years and the both sides are very
enthusiastic to promote it. Our mission is turning that enthusiasm into
specific results.
Huynh
Phan: Thank you!
TVN
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