*

Lam hails Biden's 'historic contribution' to elevating

ties

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Biden highlights semiconductors, supply chains,

cybersecurity

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Biden says 'united' on freedom of navigation, rule of law

(Updates with start of meeting, quotes from Biden and Lam,

paragraphs 1-2, 6-9)

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.

Lam has met this week in New York with representatives of

U.S. companies, including Meta (META.O), 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

(NMEs) 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.

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 historic 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.

Recalling his address to the U.N. assembly on Tuesday, Biden

added: "There's nothing beyond our capacity if we work

together."

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 that the United States has been urging

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

undersea cables by 2030.

While Lam was likely to raise the NME issue, it was not

Biden's prerogative to offer concessions on that, given Commerce

Department criteria, said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of

the Southeast Asia Program at Washington's Center for Strategic

and International Studies.

Vietnam has long argued that 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.

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.

U.S. Representative Michelle Steel, a California Republican

who represents a large population of Vietnamese Americans,

called on Biden to directly address worsening human rights

abuses in Vietnam under Lam's leadership.

Hiebert said he did not expect the meeting to go much beyond

"a brief courtesy meet and greet" given that Biden has four

months left to his term and Lam only took office in August after

nearly two years of political turmoil due to Vietnam's

anti-corruption campaign.

"I think the two leaders will recommit to the comprehensive

strategic partnership agreed to one year ago, but on which few

implementing initiatives have been taken because of the

distraction in Hanoi," he said.

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.

Geopolitically it would signal Vietnam's balanced position

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

meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the

importance of the Hanoi relationship in U.S. Asia policy, Vuving

said.