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About this page: This page contains news about the relationship between Vietnam and other countries in the world. They are copyright and belong to Jason Tran - Monash University - Clayton campus - Australia. For any information, please mail to JasonT .
Vietnam says religious freedom is guaranteed by its constitution.
The US criticism came in an annual report on religious tolerance released on Tuesday which listed Vietnam, China, North Korea, and Burma among countries where religious practice is persecuted.
The BBC Hanoi correspondent says it's not the first time charges of religious intolerance in Vietnam have been raised in the West. Buddhists form the largest religious group in Vietnam, although there are also communities of Christians and other religious minorities. (From the newsroom of the BBC World Service)
US and VN: US and VIETNAM enter new era
Aid officials are warning that the Mekong River is still rising as the death toll from the floods increases.
Officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross say the number of people who have died in southern Vietnam has now risen to 22.
As many as 100,000 have been evacuated and rescue workers say roads in the Mekong Delta are fast becoming waterlogged which is hampering relief efforts.
In Cambodia - which has also been badly hit - officials say the situation remains serious with the capital, Phnom Penh, close to being inundated.
UN experts say the floods, which have also affected Laos and Thailand are the worst in the region for 70 years and will not subside until November.
Rescue workers in Vietnam say the increase in the water level has been more rapid than they anticipated.
The water level is now within 20cm (eight inches) of that recorded during the catastrophic floods of 1961.
Within the last three days, the number of flooded houses has doubled and many roads in the delta region are now only passable by four-wheel drive vehicles provinces - Long An, Dong Thap and An Giang.
Reports from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, say that flood levels there are about 30cm (12 inches) below the point at which the centre of the city would become inundated.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to move though aid workers in the city say that so far the dykes around the capital seem to be holding.
Some of the city's one million residents have been preparing for the worst.
They have been stocking up on food supplies, despite appeals from the authorities to stop panic buying.
The Red Cross is launching a new appeal for emergency aid to help the victims.
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Red Cross spokesman John Geoghegan said the Red Cross would be meeting donors to try to raise $1.5m to supplement Vietnam's own $2m relief efforts.
The Red Cross says the unusually widespread monsoon floods have deluged nearly 800,000 sq km of land in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.
(From the newsroom of the BBC World Service)
At least 40 people have been killed in what has been described as the worst flooding to hit the Mekong Delta in Vietnam for decades.
According to disaster control officials, "most of the deaths occurred in the An Giang and Dong Thap provinces".
Vietnam's Mekong Delta, home to 16 million people, has been battered by floods since late July.
Areas of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand have been hit hard by unseasonably early and heavy monsoon rains.
Across the region official figures put the number of dead at more than 160, but aid agencies say they expect that figure to rise considerably before the crisis eases.
In Vietnam, the authorities have ordered a state of alert and the evacuation of nearly 100,000 people from the delta which is the most fertile region of the country.
More than 300,000 houses have been wrecked by the floods and nearly half a million people are reported to be without food and medicine.
Food shortages
Thailand, the world's main rice exporter, has seen more than half a million hectares of paddy fields damaged by the flooding.
Vietnam, the world's number two producer, has suffered less damage as most of the harvest has already been collected.
In many areas irrigation channels built up over decades have been totally destroyed.
The Red Cross says Laos faces food shortages after heavy floods hit the major rice producing areas of the central and southern lowlands.
(From the newsroom of the BBC World Service)
Officials at Xuan Loc village in northern Phu Tho province had offered 1,000 dong, about seven US cents, for every 50 dead caterpillars.
But in three nights the villagers killed so many of the grubs that officials were unable to pay them.
Bui Xuan Binh, deputy chairman of Xuan Loc commune, said some farmers were upset when officials tried to reduce the bounty to 1,000 dong for 150 larvae.
He added that some people had used "very high-tech means" including electricity and kerosene to kill the larvae which were threatening maize crops.
The larvae hunt, which ran from 9-12 October, involved several thousand people from more than 560 families.
The BBC Hanoi correspondent says small rewards to help pest eradication are common in the region.
A similar programme in September resulted in the death of 1.25 million mice at one cent a time.
(From the newsroom of the BBC World Service)
As President Clinton's plane touched down in the capital Hanoi, he arrived in a city where the communist old guard still rules, despite the gradual opening up of a market economy.
It follows a landmark deal which opened US markets to Vietnam in July.
Freewheeling Saigon in the south, or Ho Chi Minh City, as it is officially known, is widely seen as the nation's economic powerhouse.
It is Hanoi, where the government's decisions are made, which has proved a major block to any foreign companies wanting to do trade there.
Despite this, international investor interest has been reawakened with Mr Clinton's visit. More than 50 US companies have travelled with him there, including such big names as Nike, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Citigroup and General Motors.
And they are looking forward to it:
"This trip looks to the future as part of building a lasting relationship with an important country with vast potential," said Lionel Johnson, an executive of the world's biggest financial services company, Citigroup which wants to expand its operations there.
The companies want to get involved in a country that has a highly educated, youthful population of 78 million people, with very low wages, and vast natural reserves of oil and gas.
Vietnam, one of the world's poorest countries, is hoping that further international investment can help it accelerate economic growth.
The Asian tiger fails to growl
After years of isolation, it was in 1994 that the punishing trade embargo was lifted against Vietnam, and the re-establishing of diplomatic relations followed a year later.
But little substantial change has followed since a series of free market reforms stalled in the late 1990s.
That is not to say foreign companies did not try.
Ten years ago, the country was tipped as the next Asian economic tiger.
Global names like Unilever, BP and Shell jumped in, forming joint ventures with local Vietnamese companies.
Firms from South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan were quick to set up clothes factories and to build investment zones.
But in the mid 1990s, many started to scale back their operations, some even pulled out, citing endless frustrations over dealing with government bureaucracy.
Climate change?
But the commercial climate started to improve this year, especially with the signing of the bilateral trade agreement between Vietnam and the US in July.
Trade levels between the US and Vietnam are still extraordinarily low. US exports to Vietnam over the past few years have hovered around $250m per annum, which is about the same as the value of US exports to Japan over a three day period.
This has now begun to pick-up. Last year Vietnam exported $500m to the USA, and the Vietnamese government hopes that this year it will be $600m.
Even so, the US is only the eighth largest source of foreign investment in Vietnam. But it is still an improvement from 1995 -1999, when the US did not even make it into the top ten.
And there is a feeling of widespread optimism in Vietnam itself over Mr Clinton's visit.
Le Phuc Nguyen, an editor of the army daily Quan Doi Nhan Dan has said that the trip will be "a milestone in the normalisation of the two countries".
But in the local media, government officials have been more guarded. Foreign minister Nien Dy Nguyen commented that the US President's visit was "a chance to boost mutual understanding" and "it would ultimately be beneficial for both sides."
US investors
Rhetoric is fine but what about the reality? After a tourism company called BBI China Beach, the global giant Coca-Cola is the second biggest US investor in Vietnam, according to the Lao Dong workers newspaper.
Coca-Cola has three factories - in Hanoi, Danang (in the centre) and Ho Chi Minh City. The group has invested more than $180m in the country, and employs 2000 workers - around the same as it employs in Belgium or Italy.
Another giant with a big presence in Vietnam is Nike, the US shoe manufacturer, which already produces around 10% of its total world output in the country. Most of these shoes end up in Europe because of high US trade tariffs.
As well as footwear, Vietnam also exports crude oil, rice, garments, seafood and coffee. But the country currently ranks 72nd on America's list of trading partners, so there is plenty of room for improvement.
Removing trade tariffs
Trade between the US and Vietnam is expected to increase significantly in the coming years.
If, as is widely expected, Congress ratifies the deal signed with Vietnam in July, Vietnamese goods will be taxed at the same rates as products from most other nations with which the US trades.
Goods such as coffee, tea, spices and seafood will not be much affected by this so-called "most-favoured nation" status, as their tax rates have always been at 0%.
But sales of items such as footwear, clothing, rice, cashews and traditional handicrafts are expected to benefit greatly.
For those who have been waiting years for access to the US market, these recent developments are long overdue.
Vietnam's business sector is just starting up. The country's first stock exchange opened earlier this year.
Many Vietnamese businessmen now hope that the burgeoning US market will provide them with the opportunities to expand, following in the footsteps of countries like South Korea and Thailand.
(From the newsroom of the BBC World Service)