UPDATE 3-Pompeo to stop in Vietnam during Asia tour

(Adds U.S. official on prisoner's release)
HANOI, Oct 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo will visit Vietnam on Thursday and Friday as part of a
tour of Asia, the Vietnamese and U.S. governments said.
The visit was announced after a U.S. citizen sentenced last
year to 12 years in a Vietnamese jail for "attempting to
overthrow the state" was released by Hanoi and returned to his
home in California last week. The Vietnamese government's news website said Pompeo's visit
would mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between
the two countries.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Pompeo would add Vietnam
to his four-leg tour. Pompeo arrived in the Maldives on
Wednesday after visits to Sri Lanka and India and is due to hold
meetings in Indonesia on Thursday.
Michael Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam in 1964 and lived in
the United States since childhood, was detained in July 2018 on
suspicion of anti-government activities, including alleged
incitement of protesters to attack government offices with
Molotov cocktails and slingshots, state media reported at the
time.
Nguyen told a Zoom news conference on Wednesday he had been
"essentially kidnapped" and interrogated "for 16 hours at a time
for days." A U.S. senior administration official said Pompeo's visit
had not been dependent on Nguyen's release, adding: “We've been
looking for ways to celebrate the relationship all year thanks
to COVID.”
The official, who did not want to be identified, said a
number of top U.S. officials had argued for Nguyen's release on
"humanitarian grounds" and called it an important symbol in
celebrating the diplomatic landmark.
Foes during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s,
Hanoi and Washington have enjoyed warmer relations in recent
years but some trade tensions have emerged lately.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) confirmed in August
that at President Donald Trump's behest, it was investigating
whether Vietnam had been undervaluing its dong currency and
harming U.S. commerce.
Human rights has also been an issue raised by the U.S. side,
but both countries share concerns about an increasingly
assertive China. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc this week called
on Trump to have "a more objective assessment of the reality in
Vietnam" with regards to the trade imbalance between the two
countries. He said exchange rate policy was not aimed at helping
exports. Pompeo said in Sri Lanka on Wednesday the Chinese Communist
Party was operating as a "predator". Last month he
urged Southeast Asian countries to stand up to bullying by China
and to reassess business deals with Chinese state firms.