Vietnamese President Begins Visit of Austria

Excerpt from report by Austrian newspaper Der Standard on 2 June

[Report by Marina Mai: "Vietnamese President Begins Visit to Vienna"]

Hanoi/Vienna – Today, Monday, Vietnam’s head of state Nguyen Minh Triet begins an official three-day visit to Austria. The 65-year- old mathematician, who comes from the south of the country, will meet with President Heinz Fischer and Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. During the first visit by a Vietnamese head of state it will be primarily economic issues that will be discussed. [passage omitted]

The Vietnamese president plans to ask in Vienna for more capital from Austria and the EU for his country. Over the past years Austrian companies have supplied Vietnam with fire-brigade vehicles and have invested in the field of hospitals and railroads. On Tuesday [ 3 June] Fischer and Triet will open an Austrian- Vietnamese economic forum.

This year Vietnam belongs to the UN Security Council for the fist time. Austria which is currently campaigning for a non-permanent seat, will ask its guest for support. It is open whether Gusenbauer and Fischer will urge the respect of human rights in Vietnam. In 2007 a dozen civil rights activists were sentenced in the one-party state to long prison terms in procedures that did not correspond to a rule-of-law state. They had demanded civil rights in the Internet or during demonstrations.

Originally published by Der Standard, Vienna, in German 2 Jun 08.

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