December 13, 2010
Hanoi – US and Vietnamese diplomats on Monday opened their annual dialogue on human rights issues, a few days after the US ambassador to Hanoi criticized an ’overall narrowing’ of freedom of expression in Vietnam.
In recent months, the United States has repeatedly criticized Vietnam’s human rights record even as it seeks closer diplomatic and military relations with the communist state.
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner represents the US in the talks and Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh the Vietnamese side.
At a press conference Thursday celebrating International Human Rights Day, US Ambassador Michael Michalak said Vietnam ’continues to criminalize free speech and dissent and labels political parties other than the Communist Party ’terrorist’ organizations.’
Michalak lauded progress on poverty reduction and increasing religious freedom but noted Vietnam’s arrests and convictions of dozens of dissidents and activists this year, its blocking of the social-networking site Facebook and other restrictions on internet freedom.
The US and Vietnam have moved closer this year on diplomatic and military cooperation. This summer, the US backed Vietnam’s approach to resolving territorial conflicts with China in the South China Sea while Vietnamese military officials paid a visit to a US aircraft carrier and announced new training initiatives with the US military.