Former US President Bill Clinton, who is President of the Clinton
Foundation, affirmed that the organisation would continue to help Viet Nam in
HIV/AIDS prevention and expand co-operation in coping with climate change and
managing water resources, especially in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung presents former US president Bill Clinton with a copy of the latter’s memoir, My Life, translated into Vietnamese. (Photo: VNS)

Clinton
made the remark during a reception with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Ha Noi
yesterday, Nov 14.

At the
reception, both sides discussed active developments in the Viet Nam-US
relationship after 15 years of normalisation, prospects for the future and the
Clinton Foundation’s activities related to HIV/AIDS prevention and climate
change related activities in Viet Nam.

Clinton
said he was impressed with the significant changes Viet Nam had made since his
last visit to the country in 2005.

Dung
highlighted Clinton’s support in promoting Viet Nam-US relations and thanked him
and his foundation for their charitable activities in the country.

Viet Nam
had always attached importance to developing relations with the US and wanted to
improve co-operation in all fields in the future, he said, asking the US to
continue to help Viet Nam overcome the aftermath of the war, including the
consequences of Agent Orange.

Since
2005, the Clinton Foundation has directly helped Viet Nam in perfecting its
HIV/AIDS treatment system and improving skills among health workers in
diagnosing, taking care of and treating people living with HIV/AIDS. The
foundation has also implemented a climate change initiative to support the
country’s two major cities, Ha Noi and HCM City.

Inspiring

Yesterday, Nov 14, Clinton made an inspiring speech before hundreds of students
at the Hanoi Foreign Trade University.

Clinton,
who with then Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet made a historic decision in 1995 to
normalise relations between the two countries, and was also the first US
President to visit Viet Nam since 1969, said he was very grateful for the way
both governments have worked together for the last 15 years.

Former US president Bill Clinton was at the Hanoi Foreign Trade University yesterday. (Photo: VNN)

Work
includes collaboration on education, health care, human rights, security, land
mine clearance, helping Vietnamese citizens to cope with the aftereffects of
Agent Orange, and finding the remains and records of soldiers from both sides
lost during the long war.

“The
normalisation of relations between the US and Viet Nam was one of the proudest
moments of my presidency both because it marked the cause of all wounds and
because it revealed the possibilities to the entire world of what the 21st
century could be,” he said.

Clinton
also reminded the students that since the first trade agreement was signed by
the two countries 10 years ago, bilateral trade had increased 17 times and
reached US$15 billion. The US has become Viet Nam’s biggest export market.

He
expressed his hope that these young students, who were “the future of both
nations” and “full of ideas, remarkable energy and a passionate desire to make a
difference”, would be able to turn the 21st century into a global network of
shared responsibility and shared benefit. Young students would be the ones who
can accelerate and spread the benefits of advances in science and technology and
develop the global sense of common humanity and common descent, he said.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News