Obama in Vietnam for the first time to strengthen relations

US President Barack Obama met with Vietnamese leaders on the first day of a three-day visit intended to "strengthen relations" and show Washington's readiness to send a signal to its powerful Chinese neighbor, reports the Patria News Agency.

-Our visit is a symbol of strengthening the relations we have built over the past decades, Obama stated at a meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang.

With a population of 90 million and an accelerated growth rate, Vietnam is counting heavily on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, concluded between 12 countries, including the US and Japan, but not China. Obama hopes for its ratification before leaving office in early 2017.

Obama's first visit, and the third by a US president since the end of the war in 1975, has raised great expectations. Along the street leading to the presidential office complex, Obama was greeted by children waving American and Vietnamese flags, and a military orchestra played.

Obama's visit comes at a time when the US image is particularly favorable in this Southeast Asian country. According to a poll conducted last year by the Pew Research Center, 78 percent of Vietnamese have a positive opinion of the US, and this percentage is even higher among young people, writes Index.