*

Lam hails Biden's 'historic contribution' to elevating

ties

*

Biden highlights semiconductors, supply chains,

cybersecurity

*

Biden says they're united on freedom of navigation, rule

of law

(Adds Vietnam president's comments in paragraphs 6 and 7)

By Steve Holland and Simon Lewis

NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden

met Vietnam's president To Lam for talks on Wednesday, aiming to

deepen relations with the Southeast Asian country and

manufacturing hub and counter its ties with China and Russia.

Biden and Lam, the ruling Communist Party chief making his

first visit to the U.S. as president, met on the sidelines of

the United Nations General Assembly in New York. A senior U.S.

official said they discussed how to accelerate a strategic

partnership agreed last year.

On meeting Biden on Wednesday, Lam hailed what he called

Biden's historic contribution to elevating bilateral relations.

Biden said that since beginning a new era in relations last

year, the two countries had made significant investments in

semiconductors and supply chains and launched unprecedented

cooperation on cybersecurity.

He also said they stood united in commitments to freedom of

navigation and the rule of law - a reference to regional

maritime disputes with China.

The Vietnam News Agency reported Lam told Biden that Vietnam

was on the brink of a new era of development, and that it was a

friend and reliable partner.

"Vietnam will continue to firmly implement its foreign

policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralism and

diversification," Lam told Biden, the state media agency

reported.

Lam met this week in New York with representatives of U.S.

companies, including Meta, which pledged to expand

investments in the Communist-ruled country with a population of

100 million.

Lam asked business leaders to back Hanoi's bid to have

Washington remove it from the list of non-market economies and

lift other trade restrictions and for the U.S. and Vietnam to

cooperate on semiconductor supply chains.

Biden visited Hanoi a year ago and secured deals on

semiconductors and minerals and an upgrade in diplomatic ties,

despite U.S. concerns about human rights issues.

U.S. Representative Michelle Steel, a California Republican

who represents a large population of Vietnamese Americans, wrote

to Biden before the meeting asking him to directly address human

rights abuses in Vietnam under Lam's leadership.

Asked if Vietnam's NME status was discussed, the senior U.S.

official told reporters: "They talked about economic cooperation

broadly and plans to redouble cooperation with Vietnam."

Asked if they discussed China, the official said: "The

leaders acknowledged the fact that Vietnam lives in a

complicated neighborhood."

He said there was a recognition that Hanoi "has to be very

cautious and strategic to its approach to the region" and that

the United States is a strategic partner.

Alexander Vuving, a Vietnam expert at the Hawaii-based

Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, said the

meeting was important to helping Lam consolidate power after

being confirmed as Vietnam's top leader in August.

He said it signaled Vietnam's balanced position between the

great powers, given Lam's recent visit to China and meetings

with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as the importance

of the Hanoi relationship in U.S. Asia policy.

Lam spoke at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday and

his travels include a stop in Cuba, Vietnam's long-term

Communist partner.

Ahead of his trip, Vietnamese authorities released some

prominent activists from prison before the end of their jail

terms, sources told Reuters.

They included Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who was sentenced to 16

years in prison in January 2010 on charges of subversion, and

environment activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong, who was sentenced to

three years in prison on charges of tax fraud in September last

year, but other dissidents remain in detention.

Sources told Reuters the United States has been urging

Vietnam to avoid Chinese companies in its plans to build 10 new

undersea cables by 2030.

Vietnam has long argued it should be freed of the NME label

given recent economic reforms and that retaining the moniker is

bad for increasingly close two-way ties that Washington sees as

a counterbalance to China.

However, Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast

Asia Program at Washington's Center for Strategic and

International Studies said it was not Biden's prerogative to

offer concessions on that, given Commerce Department criteria.

Opponents, including politically influential U.S. labor

lobbies, argue Vietnam's policy commitments have not been

matched by concrete actions and it is increasingly being used as

a manufacturing hub by Chinese firms to circumvent U.S. curbs on

imports from China.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Simon Lewis in New York;

additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing

by Don Durfee, Howard Goller and Lincoln Feast.)