US consulate opens in Vietnam

[bich dao <daotb@yahoo.com>]

US consulate opens in Vietnam 

            Vietnamese queue for visas within hours of the consulate
            opening 

            The United States has opened a diplomatic
            mission in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon,
            24 years after it pulled out of the Vietnam war. 

            The new consulate has been built on the site of
            the old US embassy, where helicopters airlifted
            2,000 Americans and Vietnamese from the roof
            as they fled advancing communist forces from
            the north on 30 April 1975, marking the end of
            the war. 

            United States diplomats from Hanoi and
            Washington attended Monday's ceremony, as
            well as former American serviceman, Chuck
            Hagel, who was nearly killed in action in
            Vietnam 30 years ago and is now a republican
            senator. 

            Within hours of the opening, scores of
            Vietnamese hoping to obtain visas to visit their
            families in the US queued up outside the
            building. 

            In the past, Vietnamese had to go to Bangkok,
            Thailand, to make most visa applications. 

            Reconciliation 

            The US and Vietnamese authorities exchanged
            ambassadors in 1996, a year after they had
            normalised relations. 


                            Demolition of the old
                            embassy began in June
                            1998 and Secretary of
                            State Madeleine
                            Albright laid the first
                            brick of the $3.5m
                            consulate soon after. 

                            The building, which will
                            house 20 US and more
                            than 150 Vietnamese
                            staff, features a
                            computerised system
            designed to cut waiting time for visa applicants.

            The opening of the consulate is a symbolic step
            in US-Vietnamese relations. 

            The US Ambassador for Hanoi and former
            prisoner-of-war, Pete Peterson, said: "I
            personally see this as another event in a bright
            future." 

            Bilateral trade 

            Reconciliation between the former enemies has
            reached new heights with a bilateral trade
            accord normalising economic relations in the
            pipeline. 

            The two sides expect to formally sign the
            agreement during the summit by leaders of the
            Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum
            countries on 12 September in Auckland, New
            Zealand. 



                                            

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