SECRETARY POWELL: I've just about finished a busy two days here in Vietnam -- the ARF meetings, a number of bilateral meetings with attendees of the ARF conference and then a number of meetings with officials of the Vietnam Government. I think the ARF meetings have been very, very useful.

      What impressed me was the focus on economic development and a clear understanding on the part of all of the attendees that economic development is best served  when one has a stable security environment. So we had a great deal of discussion about having that stability, reducing potential for conflict, reducing tensions, opening up  barriers to trade and to dialogue.

      That's really what those two days were all about, dialog and creating conditions where trading can take place. It allowed me to, I think, give a very strong message that trade will only take place in those societies that are open, those societies that rest on the rule of law, those societies where money can go and be safe and be invested safely, those societies that are willing to conform to 21st century standards of trade, 21st century standards of the rule of law, the rule of contract law. I think that message was well received.

      I was also very pleased that I was able to convey to all of my colleagues at these meetings that the Bush Administration is committed to ASEAN. It is committed to this region.

      It will be a priority for us. It's been a priority since I became Secretary of State. I met early on with all of the ASEAN ambassadors in Washington, the first time that had ever been done, along with Secretary General of ASEAN. I also met with the U.S. ASEAN Business Council, so I had a pretty good head start coming over here.  I also presented to my colleagues a list of all of the things that the United States Government is already doing with ASEAN. It is a very impressive book of accomplishments, and we may have one or two left over for those of you who would like to pore through twenty-nine pages worth of tables, picking out little nuggets that you might find interesting. I hope I persuaded them that that priority is not just for the purpose of this conference, but it will be a continuing priority as we move into the future.

      The day spent with my Vietnamese colleagues, the leaders of Vietnam, was also, I think, a very successful day. I was able to mention to the Prime Minister and to the General Secretary of the Party this afternoon that I believe the House Ways and Means Committee was taking up the Bilateral Trade Agreement this afternoon and that if it is successfully passed, the House Committee then would be ready for full House action in the very new future. The Senate has already acted at committee level, so this should move a little more rapidly now. And they were pleased to hear that.

      Lots of conversations with them. I won't take you through all the bits and pieces, just to say that the message that came across consistently is that they are pleased with the six years of progress that we have had

since normalization. I heard it expressed in many different ways that the past is the past and let it be; the war is over. In one instance the General Secretary said to me, "We have many sad chapters in our history with

the United States, but now we are in a new era with new chapters." I was able  to respond "in new chapters to be written," chapters that don't talk about war but talk about peace, talk about economic cooperation, talk about helping people in Vietnam join a world that is moving forward, and to give the people of Vietnam the opportunity for a better life.

      And so we will have a little bit of fun tonight at dinner and from there, on to Korea tomorrow with those hardy souls of you who are sticking with me for the rest of this. You're only half way guys. Thank you.