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Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet, his wife and his entourage arrived in New York on June 18 (local time), the first leg of his official visit to the United States at the invitation of US President George W. Bush and his wife.
Later the same day, President Triet and his wife met officials from the Vietnamese delegation to the United Nations and Vietnamese nationals living and studying in New York to inform them about the situation back home, the Viet Nam-US relations and the goals and significance of his US visit.
The president said he was delighted to see the overseas Vietnamese community lead a stable life and integrate well into the local community. He praised the majority of overseas Vietnamese for their patriotism, the sense of national dignity and the upholding of traditional cultural identities.
President Triet affirmed that overseas Vietnamese is always considered an indispensable part of the national unity bloc of all ethnic groups in Viet Nam in the cause of industrialisation and modernisation.
“Our Vietnamese country is one, our Vietnamese nation is one. We are of the same origins,” he said, calling on overseas Vietnamese to remember their fatherland, and teach the Vietnamese language to their children .
On this occasion, President Triet announced that overseas Vietnamese will not need visas when visiting the homeland as of September 1st, 2007.
He added that Viet Nam has mapped out a draft regulation to allow foreigners to buy houses and lands in the country, thus creating more favourable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to come back to the homeland.
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