By Carl Thayer
Last month the United States and Vietnam held two important annual high-level security meetings in Washington: the 6th Political, Security, and Defense Dialogue and the 4th Defense Policy Dialogue.
The 6th U.S.-Vietnam Political, Security and Defense Dialogue was held on October 1 at deputy minister level. The U.S. was represented by Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Tom Kelly, and Vietnam was represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc.
This dialogue has a wide-ranging agenda that touches on the full-spectrum of political, security and defense issues of concern. This is reflected in the composition of the representatives that attend.
The U.S. delegation included representatives from the Department of State, Department of Defense, Agency for International Development and the U.S. Pacific Command. The Vietnamese delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of National Defense.
The agenda for the 6th U.S.-Vietnam Political, Security and Defense Dialogue included counterterrorism, counternarcotics, human trafficking, cyber, law enforcement, defense and security, disaster response, search and rescue, war legacy issues and cooperation in regional organizations such as ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit.
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