The Government will open an embassy in Vietnam and include the south-east Asian country in its overseas development programme, the Taoiseach said yesterday. The decisions were announced following a "very positive" meeting with the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Mr Phan Van Khai.
Mr Ahern is visiting Vietnam to attend the EU-ASEM summit. Today he will hold a number of meetings with leading Asian political figures before visiting the Christina Noble Children's Foundation Project in Hanoi. He will then travel on to Malaysia.
The summit, which is attended by leaders from Asian nations and EU member-states and the President of the European Commission, covers political dialogue, economic co-operation and social, cultural and environmental issues. Described as an informal dialogue between Asian and European countries, ASEM began in 1996. Originally, 10 Asian countries - Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - were involved, along with the European Commission and 15 EU member-states - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.