Visiting US Senator John McCain delivers a speech at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi Tuesday

Agent Orange remains an “irritant” issue between Vietnam and the US and both countries should do more to support the victims and clean affected areas, US Senator John McCain said Tuesday.

“I think it remains an issue both in Vietnam and the United States,” AFP quoted McCain, a former navy pilot serving the US Army in the Vietnam War, as saying.

“I believe that it remains an irritant, and perhaps more than that, for some of the people of Vietnam. But I think we need to continue to address the issue both in compensation of victims as well as cleanup of areas that are clearly contaminated,” McCain said.

Vietnam and the US normalized diplomatic relations in 1995, 20 years after war ended, reunifying the country.

McCain said Vietnam and the US must take the “next step” in their relationship, calling for “a modernization of our ties commensurate with Vietnam’s rising status in the region and in the world.”

McCain, 72, who lost his bid for the White House to Democrat Barack Obama in November, delivered a speech at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

“The further strengthening of our relationship should occur not only because of the unprecedented economic transformation of Vietnam and the extraordinary progress of our relations in the last two decades, but also because of the historic shift of economic power from the Western world to Asia,” he said.

McCain warned of voices, both in Asia and the US, urging a return to economic isolationism during the global recession.

“We must advance, not retreat,” by exploring new ways, for example, of increasing trade between the US and Vietnam while expanding free trade benefits to other Southeast Asian states, said McCain, who has made several peacetime visits to Vietnam.

He believed that US President Barack Obama’s administration wants to further improve relations between the two countries.

The two countries should conclude a bilateral investment treaty, he added.

After meeting top Vietnamese leaders, McCain was to fly to Beijing today as part of an Asian tour with two senate colleagues.

Reported by Bao Van