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EMBASSY/CONSULATE ADDRESSES

Diplomatic Representation in US:
Ambassador: Nguyen Quoc Cuong
Embassy:1233 20th St., NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: (202) 861-0737
FAX: (202) 861-0917

Embassy and Consulate Web Sites for Vietnam

U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam
Embassy of Vietnam in Washington D.C. USA
Consulate(s) General are in:
San Francisco
1700 California St., Suite 430
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 922-1577

US Diplomatic Representation:
Ambassador: Charge ď Affaires--Virginia E. Palmer
Embassy: 7 Lang Ha, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Mailing Address: NA
Telephone: 84-4-850-5000
FAX: 84-4-850-5010

Note: negotiations between representatives of the US and Vietnam concluded 28 January 1995 with the signing of an agreement to establish liaison offices in Hanoi and Washington


FOREIGN RELATIONS

During the second Indochina war (1954-75), North Vietnam sought to balance relations with its two major allies, the Soviet Union and China. Tensions with China began to grow during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and by 1975, Beijing had become increasingly critical of Hanoi's growing ties with Moscow. Over the next 4 years, Beijing's growing support for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, which in 1978 initiated bloody attacks across its border with Vietnam, reinforced Vietnamese suspicions of China's motives.

Vietnam-China relations deteriorated significantly after Hanoi instituted a ban in March 1978 on private trade, which had a particularly large impact on southern Vietnam's ethnic Chinese community. Following Vietnam's December 1978 invasion of Cambodia, China in February 1979 launched a month-long retaliatory incursion over Vietnam's northern border. Faced with severance of Chinese aid and strained international relations, Vietnam established even closer ties with the Soviet Union and its allies in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon). Through the 1980s, Vietnam received nearly $3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union and conducted most of its trade with that country and with other Comecon countries. However, Soviet and East bloc economic aid declined during the perestroika era and ceased completely after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Vietnam did not begin to emerge from international isolation until it withdrew its troops from Cambodia in 1989. Within months of the 1991 Paris Agreements, Vietnam established diplomatic and economic relations with ASEAN, as well as with most of the countries of Western Europe and Northeast Asia. China reestablished full diplomatic ties with Vietnam in 1991, and the two countries began joint efforts to demarcate their land and sea borders, expand trade and investment ties, and build political relations.

Over the past decade, Vietnam has recognized the increasing importance of growing global economic interdependence and has made concerted efforts to adjust its foreign relations to reflect the evolving international economic and political situation in Southeast Asia. The country has begun to integrate itself into the regional and global economy by joining international organizations. Vietnam has stepped up its efforts to attract foreign capital from the West and regularize relations with the world financial system. In the 1990s, following the lifting of the American veto on multilateral loans to the country, Vietnam became a member of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Asian Development Bank. The country has expanded trade with its East Asian neighbors as well as with countries in Western Europe and North America. Of particular significance was Vietnam's acceptance into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July 1995. In recent years, Vietnam's influence in ASEAN has expanded significantly; the country took over as Chairman of ASEAN in January 2010, a position it held through the calendar year. In addition, Vietnam joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) in November 1998 and hosted the ASEAN summit in 2001 and APEC in 2006. In December 2009, Vietnam completed a 2-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

While Vietnam has not experienced war since its withdrawal from Cambodia, tensions have periodically flared between Vietnam and China, primarily over their overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea. Vietnam and China each assert claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands, archipelagos in the potentially oil-rich area of the South China Sea. Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Taiwan also claim all or part of the South China Sea. Over the years, conflicting claims have produced small-scale armed altercations in the area; in 1988, 70 Vietnamese sailors died in a confrontation with China in the Spratlys. China's assertion of "indisputable sovereignty" over the Spratly Islands and the entire South China Sea has elicited concern from Vietnam and its Southeast Asia neighbors. Tensions escalated in the latter half of 2007 as, according to press reports, China pressured foreign oil companies to abandon their oil and gas exploration contracts with Vietnam in the South China Sea, including pressuring U.S. firm ExxonMobil to drop an exploration agreement with Vietnam in July 2008 in the same waters. Vietnamese students staged several anti-China demonstrations in response, prompting a warning from the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman that Hanoi's failure to quell the demonstrations was harming relations. China's efforts in the summer of 2009 to strictly enforce its unilateral fishing ban in disputed waters led to the detention for several weeks of more than two dozen Vietnamese fishermen.

In contrast, Vietnam has made significant progress with China in delineating its northern land border and the Gulf of Tonkin, pursuant to a Land Border Agreement signed in December 1999, and an Agreement on Borders in the Gulf of Tonkin signed in December 2000. The two sides completed demarcation of their land border in December 2008 and have reached understanding on maritime boundaries in the mouth of the Tonkin Gulf.

U.S.-VIETNAM RELATIONS
President Bill Clinton announced the formal normalization of diplomatic relations with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 11, 1995. Subsequent to President Clinton's normalization announcement, in August 1995, both nations upgraded their Liaison Offices opened in January 1995 to embassy status. As diplomatic ties between the nations grew, the United States opened a consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City, and Vietnam opened a consulate general in San Francisco. In 2009, the United States received permission to open a consulate in Danang; in 2010, Vietnam officially inaugurated a consulate general in Houston.

U.S. relations with Vietnam have become increasingly cooperative and broad-based in the years since political normalization. A series of bilateral summits have helped drive the improvement of ties, including President George W. Bush's visit to Hanoi in November 2006, President Triet's visit to Washington in June 2007, and Prime Minister Dung's visits to Washington in June 2008 and April 2010. The two countries hold an annual dialogue on human rights, which resumed in 2006 after a 2-year hiatus. Vietnam and the United States signed a Bilateral Trade Agreement in July 2000, which went into force in December 2001. In 2003, the two countries signed a Counternarcotics Letter of Agreement (amended in 2006), a Civil Aviation Agreement, and a textile agreement. In January 2007, Congress approved Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Vietnam. In October 2008, the U.S. and Vietnam inaugurated annual political-military talks and policy planning talks to consult on regional security and strategic issues. In August 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense and Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense held the first round of annual high-level defense talks, known as the Defense Policy Dialogue. Bilateral and regional diplomatic engagement has expanded at ASEAN, which Vietnam chaired in 2010, and continues through APEC.

Vietnam's suppression of political dissent has continued to be a main issue of contention in relations with the United States, drawing criticism from successive administrations, as well as from members of Congress and the U.S. public. Since October 2009, Vietnam's government has convicted more than 24 political dissidents, and has arrested an additional 15 others. The government has continued to further tighten controls over the Internet, press, and freedom of speech. In 2009, two journalists were arrested and convicted in connection with their reporting on high-level corruption, and several journalists and editors at leading newspapers have been fired. Several Internet bloggers were also arrested, jailed, and convicted after writing about corruption, and protesting China's actions in the disputed Spratly and Paracel Islands and Chinese mining of bauxite in the central highlands.

In contrast, Vietnam has continued to make progress on expanding religious freedom, although significant issues remain. In 2005, Vietnam passed comprehensive religious freedom legislation, outlawing forced renunciations and permitting the official recognition of new denominations. Since that time, the government has granted official national recognition or registration to a number of new religions and religious groups, including eight more Protestant denominations, and has registered hundreds of local congregations particularly in the central highlands. As a result, in November 2006, the Department of State lifted the designation of Vietnam as a "Country of Particular Concern," based on a determination that the country was no longer a serious violator of religious freedoms, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act. This decision was reaffirmed by the Department of State in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Nevertheless, there is room for further progress. The government's slow pace of church registration, particularly in the northwest highlands, and harassment of certain religious leaders for their political activism, including leaders of the unrecognized United Buddhist Church of Vietnam and Hoa Hao faith were an ongoing source of U.S. concern. Violence against the Plum Village Buddhist order at the Bat Nha Pagoda in Lam Dong and Catholic parishioners in Con Dau parish outside of Danang and outside of Hanoi at Dong Chiem parish at the hands of the police and organized mobs was particularly troubling.

As of November 12, 2010, the U.S. Government listed 1,711 Americans unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, including 1,310 in Vietnam. Since 1973, 935 Americans have been accounted for, including 661 in Vietnam.

Additionally, the Department of Defense has confirmed that of the 196 individuals who were "last known alive" (LKA) in Vietnam, the U.S. Government has determined the fate of all but 25. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting command (JPAC) conducts four major investigation and recovery periods a year in Vietnam, during which specially trained U.S. military and civilian personnel investigate and excavate hundreds of cases in pursuit of the fullest possible accounting. Unrestricting areas previously denied to JPAC personnel has been a recent highlight of cooperation by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as was the first-ever turnover of POW/MIA-related artifacts from the Vietnam Military History Museum, apparently a reciprocal action in response to U.S. turnovers of Vietnamese war artifacts. In June 2009, a coastal search mission by the oceanographic survey ship USNS Heezen was the first of its kind, creating the potential to recover hundreds of underwater crash sites. The U.S. would still like to see the provision of archival documents related to U.S. losses along the wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail, as well as more openness in general with regard to Vietnam’s wartime archives. The United States considers achieving the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing and unaccounted for in Indochina to be one of its highest priorities with Vietnam.

Since entry into force of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement on December 10, 2001, increased trade between the U.S. and Vietnam, combined with large-scale U.S. investment in Vietnam, evidence the maturing U.S.-Vietnam economic relationship. In 2009, the United States exported $3.1 billion in goods to Vietnam and imported $12.3 billion in goods from Vietnam. Similarly, U.S. companies continue to invest directly in the Vietnamese economy. During 2009, the U.S. private sector committed $9.8 billion to Vietnam in foreign direct investment. Another sign of the expanding bilateral relationship is the signing of a Bilateral Air Transport Agreement in December 2003. Several U.S. carriers already have third-party code sharing agreements with Vietnam Airlines. Direct flights between Ho Chi Minh City and San Francisco began in December 2004. The Bilateral Air Transport Agreement was amended in October 2008 to fully open markets for cargo air transportation. Vietnam and the United States also signed a Bilateral Maritime Agreement in March 2007 that opened the maritime transport and services industry of Vietnam to U.S. firms.

Vietnam remains heavily contaminated by explosive remnants of war, primarily in the form of unexploded ordnance (UXO) including extensive contamination by cluster munitions dating from the war with the United States. The United States is the largest single donor to UXO/mine action. The Department of State continues to assist Vietnam in detecting and clearing unexploded ordnance, educating the public on the risks of UXO and providing assistance to the victims of UXO. Since 1993, U.S. has contributed over $50 million in clearance, education, and victims’ assistance programs.

While legacy issues such as UXO/demining, MIA accounting, and Agent Orange provided the foundations for the U.S.-Vietnam defense relationship, mutual interest in addressing the challenges of humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, search and rescue, and maritime security have allowed the defense relationship to accelerate in the past 3 years, with Vietnam participating in U.S.-provided capacity-building training in these areas. Many of these topics are discussed in annual bilateral defense discussions. In April 2009, a delegation of senior Vietnamese Navy and Air Force officers participated in a fly-out to the USS John C. Stennis in international waters off the coast of Vietnam. During August 2010, another delegation of government and military officials participated in a fly-out and tour aboard the USS George Washington just prior to the USS John S. McCain visit to Danang, Vietnam.

Two years after its first visit to Vietnam, the hospital ship USNS Mercy paid a port call to Quy Nhon in June 2010, where it provided medical and dental treatment to thousands; the USNS Mercy's June 2008 visit to Nha Trang reached over 11,000 Vietnamese patients. Other U.S. Navy visits in 2010 included the USNS Richard E. Byrd for maintenance and repair. Vietnam continues to observe multinational exercises such as the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) organized by the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the yearly GPOI CAPSTONE exercise organized by the U.S. Pacific Command. An active partner in nonproliferation regimes, Vietnam also takes full advantage of expertise, equipment, and training available under the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program and signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States to initiate a program--known as Megaports--to help Vietnam detect and identify weapons of mass destruction and their components at its commercial ports. Vietnam recently agreed to join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, and Prime Minister Dung was an active participant in President Barack Obama's April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.


Principal U.S. Embassy Official
Charge ď Affaires--Virginia E. Palmer

The U.S. Embassy in Vietnam is located at 7 Lang Ha, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam (tel. 84-4-850-5000; fax 84-4-850-5010).


TRAVEL ADVISORIES

To obtain the latest Travel Advisory Information for Vietnam check the U.S. State Department Consular Information Sheet.


TRAVEL TIPS

Driving TBA
Currency (VND) Dong
Electrical 127/220 Volts
Telephones Country Code 84, City Code, Hanoi 4+7D, Hochi Minh City 8+7D, Hoa Binh 18+6D



For general information about travel in Vietnam look at this Internet Travel Guide.


CUSTOMS/DUTIES

Cigarettes................400 cigarettes

Liquor......................2 bottles

Perfume...................reasonable amount for personal use

Cameras..................must be declared on arrival

Film.........................must be declared on arrival

Gifts.........................reasonable amount

Currency..................must be declared on arrival

Agriculture items.....information unavailable

Prohibited: the importation of non-prescribed drugs, firearms and pornography



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