US, Vietnam to Bolster Maritime Security
The United States and Vietnam are committed to deepening their defense relationship, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi during a news conference with Defense Minister Gen. Phung Quang Thanh.
The US will provide $18 million to Vietnam to help procure coast guard patrol vessels, a first step in what Secretary of Defense Ash Carter hopes is a growing military relationship between those two countries.
The initiative marks the first major development on defense cooperation between the two erstwhile enemies since the partial lifting of the decades-old U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam late last year (the embargo still excludes lethal arms).
The U.S. defense secretary, who is on an 11-day trip to the Asia-Pacific, has focused on maritime security in his public remarks amid concerns about the implications of China's massive island-building effort, which has added 2,000 acres (809 hectares) of land in about 18 months, most of it this year.
Carter also met with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as part of his 10-day trip to meet with Asia-Pacific partner nations and affirm the U.S. commitment to the region.
The two nations have come a long way over the past 20 years, Carter said. “As the general and I reaffirmed in our meeting today, we're both committed to deepening our defense relationship and laying the groundwork for the next 20 years of our partnership,” he said, adding that a joint vision statement signed yesterday will help the nations do just that.
“Following last year's decision by the United States to partially lift the ban of arms sales to Vietnam, our countries are now committed for the first time to operate together, step up our defense trade and work toward co-production,” Carter said.
This action, and Carter’s stop in Haiphong this week, where he was the first U.S. defense secretary to visit a Vietnamese military base and tour a Vietnamese coast guard vessel, underscores the “continued positive trajectory of the U.S.-Vietnam defense relationship,” he said, “especially in maritime security.”
Earlier this year in Da Nang, the U.S. and Vietnamese navies practiced using the code for unplanned encounters at sea, Carter said.
