The United States has upped its efforts to entice Vietnam to team up along with the Philippines and Japan to contain China in the South China Sea, says Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.
Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, met with US president Barack Obama last week during a visit to Washington to market the 20th anniversary of the normalization of US-Vietnam relations. Trong does not hold an official government position but is regarded as the nation's de-facto leader for directing Vietnam's controlling party.
Obama said the two countries have moved beyond their "difficult history" — alluding to the Vietnam War, in which both sides suffered massive losses — and would move ahead on trade and security cooperation that could benefit both countries.
The US president noted that he has received an invitation to Vietnam and said he looks forward to visiting "sometime in the future," but stopped short of giving a direct pledge to make an official trip to Hanoi.
In addition to discussions around human rights issues, Obama and Trong also talked candidly about China's assertive land reclamation activities and military constructions on disputed islands in the South China Sea. Last year, China and Vietnam were engaged in a standoff near the disputed Paracel Islands, where a state-owned Chinese corporation had deployed an oil rig. Both sides accused the other of ramming their boats, later leading to nationwide anti-China protests in Vietnam that resulted in several deaths and extensive damage to Chinese-funded businesses.
Read the full story at Want China Times