US Secretary of State Colin Powell can expect a hostile reception from the American business community when he arrives here Tuesday on his first visit to Vietnam since the war ended in 1975.
Despite repeated requests from the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Amcham), Powell has scheduled no meetings with US business leaders during his four-day visit to attend a regional security forum.
"Powell will be the first cabinet-level official since the establishment of diplomatic relations (in 1995) not to meet with Amcham representatives," the chamber's executive chairman in Hanoi, Adam Sitkoff, said.
"He's got a string of meetings with Vietnamese officials, but so far he's found no time to talk to us."
Powell's refusal to meet with the US business community has raised eyebrows as Congress is poised to vote on a landmark trade deal which is seen as setting the final seal on normalization between the former foes.
The deal was signed under the administration of former president Bill Clinton, but after several months of delay President George W. Bush finally submitted the agreement to lawmakers for ratification last month.
The bill's submission helped ease a war of words with Vietnam which marred the opening months of Bush's presidency after Clinton's landmark visit here in November.
Powell has himself spoken out in favour of the deal, saying trade can play an important role in prising open closed societies like communist Vietnam.
But rather than meeting business leaders, Powell has chosen to attend all the meetings of the security forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as an array of talks on the sidelines.
The former chief of staff was due to take time out to visit the US mission tasked with accounting for soldiers still posted as missing from the Vietnam War.
A helicopter crash in April killed seven US servicemen and nine Vietnamese on a search for missing Americans in the first tragedy in the mission's 16-year history.
Powell, the most senior US official who fought in the war ever to return to Vietnam, spoke ahead of his departure from Washington of the "flood of emotions" he expected to experience on going back to a country where he had lost "some of my best friends from college".
But unusually for a visiting US official, Powell was not due to oversee a repatriation ceremony for the remains of US servicemen, even though one was held just a few weeks ago which could have been delayed.
The secretary of state has meetings scheduled with four Vietnamese officials -- communist party chief Nong Duc Manh, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President Tran Duc Luong as well as Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien.
In March the statutory US Commission on International Religious Freedom called on him to use the meetings to "impress upon Vietnamese officials that the promotion of religious freedom is indispensable to the continuation of healthy and increasingly close relations."
Diplomats say Powell is likely to press Vietnamese leaders for the release of a string of leading religious dissidents detained here in recent months, including Nobel peace prize nominee Thich Quang Do.
But he is expected to leave detailed talks to a planned human rights dialogue next month.
On Thursday night Powell will face a test of his mettle when he attends the closing gala dinner of the forum at which ministers are traditionally expected to let their hair down and entertain their colleagues with music or song.
Powell's predecessor Madeleine Albright threw herself into the informal atmosphere with relish, even joining Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in a rousing rendition of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" at one year's dinner -- HANOI (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
