(VOVworld) – On Tuesday Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung held talks with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the ASEAN-US Summit in Sunnylands. President Obama said he will visit Vietnam in May to learn more about Vietnam, its land, people, and culture and discuss ways to maintain momentum for the US-Vietnam comprehensive cooperative partnership. Prime Minister Dung said the visit will initiate a new period of cooperation and development between the two countries.

During 40 minutes of talks, they discussed important cooperative areas as well as regional and global issues of mutual concern. Prime Minister Dung expressed Vietnam’s concerns over complicated developments in the East Sea, threatening peace, security, safety, and freedom of navigation and aviation. These, he added, were caused by the unilateral expansion of illegally occupied islands and large-scale artificial island building, which changed the status quo as well as increased militarization in different ways. Prime Minister Dung asked the US to have a stronger voice and more practical and effective actions to call for an end to all activities changing the status quo in the East Sea, particularly the building of artificial islands and militarization, as well as to respect and fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards adopting a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). President Obama said Washington is concerned about the situation in the East Sea and supports diplomatic and legal efforts to resolve sovereignty disputes in the East Sea based on international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the DOC.

Prime Minister Dung also said that now that the TPP had been signed countries should quickly ratify it in line with their law. He asked the US to quickly recognize Vietnam’s market economy and extend from 18 months to 3-4 years the time for Vietnam to transform its management methods to conform to the US’s Farm Bill 2014. He also called for US technical support for controlling food safety and hygiene for Vietnamese Tra and Basa fish exported to the US. Prime Minister Dung asked President Obama for continued support in addressing the consequences of war, particularly the detoxification of dioxin and clearance of bombs and mines left over from the war. He also asked the US to fully remove the ban on the sales of lethal weapons for Vietnam, considering it an important step towards consolidating mutual political trust. He also called for US support to increase Vietnam’s capacity to enforce the law at sea as well as technical support for Vietnam’s marine police.

President Obama agreed with Vietnam’s proposals and said he will ask relevant US agencies to cooperate with Vietnam in addressing each particular issue with a view to increasing trust and mutual understanding and deepening their comprehensive cooperative partnership.