WASHINGTON: Vietnam's president began a rare US visit on Wednesday with talks on boosting trade between the former war foes, but lawmakers warned that they first expected progress on human rights.
Truong Tan Sang is only the second Vietnamese president invited to the White House since the normalization of ties between the countries, which have increasingly found common cause amid unease over China's rise.
Sang started his visit by talking to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal under discussion among 12 nations including most recently heavyweight Japan.
Pritzker "emphasized the importance of concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations this year, which is a top priority for the Obama administration," a Commerce Department statement said.
Pritzker said Vietnam had "a significant amount to gain" from the trade pact, which Obama has billed as a way to shape Asia's future through greater respect for international rules.
Sang will meet with US business leaders over dinner after a lunch with Secretary of State John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who as a senator played a key role in the normalization of ties in 1995.
But members of Congress have warned that they may object to the Trans-Pacific Partnership unless Vietnam improves its human rights record.
Three lawmakers said they had spoken to President Barack Obama about Vietnam and that he promised to raise human rights concerns when he meets Sang on Thursday.
"The United States can play an important role by making it clear that the future of good relations with our country goes hand in hand with Vietnam affording its citizens their basic rights," Representative Zoe Lofgren said in a statement.
Representative Alan Lowenthal said after the White House talks that "anyone who supports ending human rights violations in Vietnam has an important ally in the White House."
Lowenthal, Lofgren and Susan Davis, the third lawmaker at the White House meeting, are all members of Obama's Democratic Party from California, whose Vietnamese American community is vocal in its criticism of Hanoi.
Several other lawmakers and activists have accused Obama of sending mixed signals by inviting Sang even though his own administration has said that Vietnam's rights record is worsening.
Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican, recently told AFP of Obama's human rights policy: "He is the worst president we have ever had on this issue."
In a joint letter to Obama, family members of three dozen detained Vietnamese activists or bloggers urged the US leader to "stand up for the people of Vietnam" by pressing Sang to free all political prisoners.
"An independent and democratic Vietnam will not only help advance the bilateral relations between the two countries, but will be a necessary condition that contributes to the stabilization and prosperity of the Asia Pacific region," they wrote.
The letter was signed by relatives of human rights attorney Le Quoc Quan, blogger Nguyen Van Hai and legal activist Cu Huy Ha Vu, who are among around 120 Vietnamese considered political prisoners by advocacy groups.
Protesters trailed the only previous Vietnamese president to visit the White House Nguyen Minh Triet, who was invited by then president George W. Bush during his six-day trip across the United States in 2007.
Obama has put a priority on building relations with Southeast Asia, seeing the growing and largely US-friendly region as neglected in the past. Sang will be the fourth Southeast Asian leader at the White House this year.
The Obama administration has been firm in calls since 2010 to preserve freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway where Vietnam and the Philippines have growing friction wih Beijing.
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