Meeting with the three-member delegation on July 17 in Hanoi, VUFO President Vu Xuan Hong welcomed the visit. He made a brief introduction on Vietnam today and on the state’s continuous policy to protect religious freedom in the country. Hong said that despite ongoing positive development in the Vietnam-U.S. relations, various negative attitudes towards Vietnam’s religious policy still exist. Hong hoped the IGE’s visit would help secure more knowledge on the religious situation in Vietnam and convey correct information to the U.S. government and the American people.
IGE President Seiple expressed his thanks to the VUFO and the Vietnam-US Society for the long cooperation and support. He said the prejudices were real and IGE’s mission was to put more effort in collecting and verifying information related to the situation of religious freedom in Vietnam and sharing issues of mutual interest with Vietnamese partners so as to build a bridge of better understanding between the two countries.
The institute and the Vietnam-US Society signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in 2005, a testament to show NGOs and government agencies can work together for the common goal. The memorandum has been renewable in November 2012 to confirm their continued cooperation in religious issues and human rights.
Seiple is also the founder of The Review of Faith & International Affairs, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia), a member at the Council on Foreign Relations (New York), and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London). With a recognized expertise in national and homeland security, U.S. foreign policy, Central & East Asia, humanitarian intervention, religion and international affairs, Muslim-Christian relations, and religious freedom, Seiple has appeared on BBC, MSNBC, Fox News, CN8, and CNN.
Hai Anh
