Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) credited President Joe Biden with making the right call by attending the Group of 20 (G20) summit in India over the weekend, saying the president’s actions send a key message about the U.S. role in the Indo-Pacific region.
“President Biden did the right thing by showing up and showing that we are leaders in the world today, leaders for peace, leaders for democracy, leaders for freedom. And so I’m glad President Biden was there,” Mr. Correa said in an interview with NTD News’ “Capitol Report” on Monday.
President Biden’s visit to the Indo-Pacific region comes at a time of increased competition between the United States and China’s communist regime. While President Biden attended the G20 summit in India, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping skipped the event, leaving the U.S. president with an opportunity to court regional partners without pushback from China.
“First of all, by President Biden visiting that area of the world, he is there saying ‘I care enough, I believe you are important enough for me to be here,'” Mr. Correa said. “And that’s the right call because, whether you believe one thing or another, it is clear that that area of the world will be the growth center, economically, of the world for the next few decades. We have to be there.”
Mr. Correa noted the Indo-Pacific region has become a major theater of economic growth. While China is currently positioned as the world’s second-largest economy, the congressman noted that India and Vietnam represent two other major economies in the region.
“India is now the fifth largest economy in the world, and Vietnam is also exploding in terms of economic activity,” he said. “And their central role in the area, economically, geographically, is very central and very key.”
Biden’s Vietnam Visit
While the United States is at odds with China and its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that is not preventing President Biden from forging relationships with other communist nations. Following the G20 summit, the president flew to Hanoi, Vietnam, where he met with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
When asked about the optics of President Biden forging ties with one communist one-party state over another, Mr. Correa noted that China and Vietnam have historically been at odds and are not necessarily politically aligned.
“Not all communism is the same. And I say this to you because Vietnam and China have had frictions, have had small wars across that Vietnamese-China border over their history, especially over the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years,” Mr. Correa said.
The United States and Vietnam established diplomatic relations 28 years ago and have advanced a defense and economic partnership over the past decade, but the U.S. government’s views toward Vietnam and its government are still complicated. A 2022 report by the U.S. State Department lists a range of concerns, including arbitrary killings and political imprisonments by the Vietnamese government, restrictions on the freedom of the press and the overall inability of citizens “to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections.”
Mr. Correa said strengthening relations between the United States and Vietnam may not be a bad choice, provided President Biden is willing to still hold the Vietnamese government accountable across a range of human rights issues.
“For President Biden to go there to visit Vietnam is a good step, provided—provided—that he emphasizes to Vietnam that we have to work on human rights and religious freedom,” Mr. Correa said. “Vietnam is a great country, but they also have to respect human rights.”
Mr. Correa said he would work with the Biden administration to ensure that it continues to push Vietnam to improve its human rights record.
“We’ve got to do it. We can’t make the same mistakes that we made in the past, which is just look at the military, the economic side. No, we have to look at the human aspects of these relationships going forward,” he said.
22nd Anniversary of 9/11
President Biden’s attendance at the G20 summit and his visit to Vietnam came just days before the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The White House announced the president would stop in Alaska on his way back from the G20 summit, and would commemorate the day at a ceremony with members of the military and their families in Alaska.
Reflecting on the 22 years since the attacks, Mr. Correa said, “That was the day that changed America, that awakened to us to a new world.”
The California congressman recalled the bravery of first responders who ran into buildings hit during the terrorist attacks and tried to rescue as many people as they could.
“I remember Americans running into the buildings to save other Americans, and those are the first responders. If you can remember, firefighters, police officers, running into the buildings, knowing that they were probably going to perish, and yet they still went in to rescue Americans. And on that day, that tragic event, sequence of events, if there’s one thing, a silver lining in that very dark day, it’s that you saw that spirit of America come forth,” Mr. Correa said.