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CONSULATE GENERAL OF VIETNAM <br />1700 CALIFORNIA STREET, SUITE 430 <br />SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109 <br />TEL: 415.922.1707 <br />FAX: 415.922.1848 415.922.0307 <br />The Honorable Miguel Pulido <br />Mayor of the City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />P.O. Box 1988, M31 <br />Santa Ana, CA92701 <br />San Francisco, 08 November, 2012 <br />Dear Mayor Pulido: <br />I would like to offer my congratulations on your successful reelection to a tenth term <br />as Mayor of the City of Santa Ana. <br />I am writing to you to express the Government of Vietnam's deep concern with the <br />move by some Santa Ana councilmen to pass an ordinance "discouraging official <br />visits from communist Vietnam to the City." We urge you and the city leaders not to <br />endorse such an ordinance because of the following reasons: <br />First, the nature and the implementation of such an ordinance (if passed by the <br />Council) run against the U.N. 1961 and 1963 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic <br />Relations, to which both the United States and Vietnam are parties. The Convention <br />includes stipulations on fundamental rights of diplomatic and consular members such <br />as: freedom of movement and travel in the receiving State's territory, subject to its <br />laws and regulations concerning zones entry into which is prohibited or regulated for <br />reasons of national security; the receiving State shall treat a diplomatic agent with due <br />respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, <br />freedom or dignity; the right to free communication on the part of the mission for all <br />official purposes. The proposed ordinance is also in conflict with international rules <br />and practices regarding diplomatic and consular relations among sovereignties. <br />Second, this ordinance is completely inconsistent with the interest and aspirations of <br />the majority of American and Vietnamese people, who wish to put aside the past of a <br />tragic war to build a long term friendship and cooperation between the two nations. <br />The ordinance, indeed, would not be in sync with the political will of the U.S. <br />Government striving to build a strategic partnership with Vietnam in the interest of <br />