(VOVworld) – Vietnam values its relations with the US based on their comprehensive partnership. During a reception for Senator Bob Corker, a high-ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Hanoi on Tuesday, President Truong Tan Sang said Vietnam is ready to expand economic and trade cooperation with the US and discuss measures to avoid trade barriers between the two countries. Vietnam is determined to complete negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) with the US and hoped that the US would remove its ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam. President Truong Tan Sang asked the US to remove barriers and aid Vietnam’s development with high technology.

With regard to the East Sea, President Truong Tan Sang said that unless China renounced its unreasonable 9-dot line the regional situation could not return to normal. He said that the East Sea did not belong to any single country but the whole region and was of great importance to international navigation safety and freedom. He also insisted on Vietnam’s opposition to China’s 9-dot line and said that Vietnam welcomed countries with the same stance as that of Vietnam and ASEAN. Vietnam wants to maintain and consolidate friendship with other countries, protests the use of or threat to use force, and hopes that sovereignty disputes can be settled with peaceful measures and in accordance with international law.

Senator Bob Corker said that the Vietnam-US TPP negotiations offered an opportunity for the development of both nations and the region. Regarding the East Sea, he said he supported the easing of tension through peaceful measures and stressed the unity of ASEAN member states in dispute settlements in line with international law. The Senator said he believed both nations would hold various activities to celebrate the 20 years of bilateral diplomatic relations next year.