News Report: Vietnam Slams China Over Live-Fire Drills in South China Sea

Chinese Navy Warships on patrol

Vietnam on Tuesday again strongly criticized China’s military live-fire exercises in the disputed South China Sea amid escalating tensions between the two Asian nations.

The Maritime Safety Administration of China's southern province of Hainan, which oversees the South China Sea, announced last month that live-fire drills would take place around the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, until September 2.

"Vietnam strongly objects to this action by China and seriously requests China to respect Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa [Paracel] archipelagos," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a newly released statement.

"Vietnam once again asserts that [we] will resolutely protect our sovereignty and our legitimate rights and interests in the East Sea [South China Sea] through peaceful measures that are suitable with international laws," the statement said.

News Report: What's Behind Upcoming US Aircraft Carrier's Visit to Vietnam?

The US and Vietnam have agreed on a visit by a US aircraft carrier to the country next year. It will be the first such visit since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Radio Sputnik spoke with an analyst, Dr. Collin Koh Swee Lean, in an interview about this development.

During the recent meeting between Vietnamese Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich and his US counterpart James Mattis, the two defense leaders agreed to deepen mutual military cooperation.

Following the talks held in Washington, Jim Mattis said that strong relations between the two countries were based on mutual interests, including freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

In an interview with Radio Sputnik, a research fellow at the Maritime Security Program, Dr. Collin Koh Swee Lean, said that this cooperation has been flourishing the past few years.

“First of all it is important to highlight that this recent announcement of the aircraft carrier visit was built on the earlier upswing in the political relations between the US and Vietnam even during Obama’s administration, so now Trump’s administration is building on that momentum,” Lean said.

News Report: What Makes Vietnam an 'Ideal Client' For the United States?

While diplomatic battles were raging in Manila over the final statements of the foreign ministers in light of the ASEAN meetings, Vietnamese Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lịch was meeting with his US counterpart, James Mattis, in Washington. Sputnik China spoke to an expert from the Center for Strategic Research, Anton Tsvetov, in an interview.

“The desperate struggle of Vietnamese diplomats in the corridors of the ASEAN ministerial meeting on the wording of the resolution concerning the South China Sea caused a flurry of criticism in the Chinese media,” Tsvetov said.

He further said, “This loneliness of Vietnam in its struggle further pushes it towards the United States. Although Vietnam refuses to behave like the Philippines under Duterte, it will also not behave like the Philippines under Aquino.”

According to the expert, perhaps the loudest news of the visit of the Vietnamese defense minister is the alleged promise by Mattis to bring a US aircraft carrier to a Vietnamese port during 2018; the last time it happened was in 1975, and back then the US ship had completely different purposes. 

News Story: Vietnamese, US defence chiefs hold talks

Washington D.C. (VNA) – Defence Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich held talks with US Secretary of Defence James Mattis in Washington D.C. on August 8 following a welcome ceremony the same day. 

Lich, who is on US visit from August 7-10, said Vietnam considers the US one of the top important partners and always prioritises developing bilateral ties based on the principles of equality, respect for political regime, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of each country. 

He spoke highly of the US’s collaboration with the Vietnamese coast guards in law enforcement at sea as well as in the United Nations peacekeeping mission. 

The two officials hailed the outcomes of bilateral ties on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding on promoting defence links and the Declaration on the Joint Vision on bilateral defence ties covering the exchange of all-level delegations, training, dialogue consultation, maritime security, search and rescue, bomb and mines clearance, Agent Orange/dioxin detoxification, and United Nations peacekeeping activities. 

They agreed to reinforce coordination under signed agreements, with priority given to post-war recovery efforts in Vietnam, response to non-traditional security challenges and the UN peacekeeping activities. 

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Report: South China Sea Chess - US Aircraft Carrier To Visit Hanoi in 2018

Washington and Hanoi have signaled a mutual desire to improve relations almost at the exact moment Vietnam has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary James Mattis met with Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich at the Pentagon where it was announced that an unspecified US aircraft carrier would visit the Southeast Asian nation next year. "Vietnam and the United States of America respect our pasts, but we look to the future," Mattis said, in reference to the war fought decades ago.

News Report: Mattis, Vietnamese Defense Chief Agree to Deepen Security Cooperation - Pentagon

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis met with Vietnamese Minister of Defense Ngo Xuan Lich at the Pentagon to discuss increasing defense cooperation to enhance security in the Asia-Pacific, according to the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis met with Vietnamese Minister of Defense Ngo Xuan Lich at the Pentagon to discuss increasing defense cooperation to enhance security in the Asia-Pacific, the Defense Department said in a press release.

"The Secretary and the Minister of National Defense agreed on actions to deepen defense cooperation," the release said on Tuesday. "The two leaders agreed a strong US-Vietnam defense relationship promotes regional and global security. This relationship is based on mutual respect and common interests, including the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea."

Both leaders also agreed to a first-time visit of a US aircraft carrier to Vietnam next year to expand naval cooperation and enhance information-sharing, the release said.

Defense cooperation between the United States and Vietnam brings regional and global security in the Asia-Pacific region, the release stated.

The US-Vietnam relationship strives on common interests that include freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, the release noted.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: US Kicks Off Navy Drills With Vietnam After China Slams 'Serious Provocation'

Just days after the US sent a guided-missile destroyer near a disputed South China Sea island claimed by three nations, Washington’s Navy initiated naval drills with Vietnam.

The USNS Salvor and the USS Coronado on Wednesday sailed into Vietnam’s Cam Ranh International Port, where they will engage in annual “Naval Engagement Activity” (NEA), a joint collaboration set to take place over five days. 

According to a Navy statement these exercises will include practicing the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), ship handling and medical evaluations along with skill exchanges for law, shipboard damage control and shipboard medicine.

"The United States values our comprehensive partnership with Vietnam and we look forward to deepening our relationship and people-to-people ties through engagements like NEA," Task Force 73 Commander Rear Adm. Don Gabrielson said in a statement. 

"By working and interacting together regularly we foster meaningful relationships and trust between our nations that contribute to the peace and prosperity of the region." 

News Report: Vietnam Faces New Oil Dispute With China After Beijing Cuts Visit Short

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — China and Vietnam face a stiff new test in avoiding a showdown over undersea oil drilling after Beijing cut short a high-level meeting last week, but experts say the two sides will eventually patch things over.

Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission left early from a “defense border meeting” in Vietnam Thursday due to “working arrangements,” the official Xinhua News Agency in Beijing reported. Fan had met earlier in the week with Vietnam’s Communist Party general secretary, president and prime minister.

Talks cancelled

Neither side is saying officially whether something else led to the cancelation. Analysts who track Vietnam believe it comes down to a disputed South China Sea oil exploration tract in Vietnam’s hands as well as Hanoi’s recent contact with Chinese rivals Japan and the United States.

“Most analysts believe China was either sending Vietnam a signal about its deepening ties with the U.S. and Japan or pressing it to stop exploring for oil near China’s nine-dash line or maybe both,” said Murray Hiebert, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

News Report: China, Vietnam Cancel High-Level Meeting Over South China Sea Disputes

Not long after Chinese and Vietnamese state-run media announced that senior military officials from Beijing and Hanoi would meet, the arrangements fell through at the last minute.

In a short statement released Tuesday, the Chinese Defense Ministry said that "reasons related to working arrangements" caused the cancellation, with some analysts suggesting that representatives from Beijing cut their Vietnam trip short after a contentious closed-door meeting about South China Sea territorial disputes.

Both Vietnam and China are "very committed to showing the other their own resolve" on territorial issues, Vietnam specialist Alexander L. Vuving, of Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, told the New York Times. 

"You can say both sides miscalculated," he added about the sudden cancellation.

News Story: US eyes stronger ties with Vietnam

Washington DC (VNA) – The US administration attaches importance to and wishes for the stronger development in the relations with Vietnam in various fields in the time ahead, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. 

In his speech at a State-level banquet for Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on May 31 in Washington DC, Tillerson described the official visit to the US by PM Phuc from May 29-31 as an important advance for the two sides to enhance mutual understanding and discuss measures to boost their comprehensive partnership in the coming time.

The US and Vietnam boast many opportunities to foster bilateral relations across areas, especially trade-investment, security-defence, and coordination in settling regional and international issues of common concern. 

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Vietnam, US want to further defense partnership

Hanoi (VNA) – Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, hosted a reception for Senior Vice President of the US-ASEAN Business Council Michael Michalak in Hanoi on May 17.

The two sides spoke highly of the comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the US, including the effective defense cooperation.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Vietnamese ambassador visits US Military Academy

Washington DC (VNA) – Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh has highlighted the two countries’ defence and security cooperation while visiting the US Military Academy in West Point, New York.

During the visit, made at the invitation of the academy and the US Department of State, Vinh met with the academy’s Superintendent Lieutenant General Robert Caslen, lecturers and cadets of the departments of social sciences and international relations.

At the meetings, he reviewed the two countries’ relations, valuing their comprehensive partnership with the principles of an equal relationship and respect for each other’s political regime and recent cooperation outcomes.

Both sides have regularly exchanged high-ranking delegations while enhancing economic, trade and investment links, he said, elaborating that bilateral trade has surpassed 50 billion USD, rising by more than 100 times from when they set up diplomatic ties in 1995. Cooperation in education, health care and science-technology has also been reinforced.

In terms of defence-security, they have been carrying out the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding for Advancing Bilateral Defence Cooperation and the 2015 Joint Vision Statement, which include cooperation in maritime security, search and rescue, natural disaster response, peacekeeping, war consequences settlement, unexploded ordnance clearance and dioxin detoxification.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Report: Trump Shows Signs He Will Rekindle US-Vietnam Relations

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — Vietnam is eyeing a chance to restart prized trade and security ties with the United States, while checking the persuasive influence of old rival China following a new overture from the Trump administration.

A letter from U.S. President Donald Trump to Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang suggesting more two-way cooperation should ease concerns in Hanoi that Washington has paused support for the Southeast Asian country, analysts say, though it is unlikely to herald any immediate breakthroughs.

There has been no official U.S. comment on the matter.

Vietnam, U.S. trade

Observers believe Hanoi hopes the letter, disclosed in the Vietnamese media last week, means the United States will agree to an increase in trade despite Trump's scrapping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country trade deal that included Vietnam.

It may also signal a revival of the fledgling defense ties Vietnam formed under former President Barack Obama as China militarized a tract of ocean claimed by Hanoi.

"I think Vietnam's attempt to maintain that multi-polar balance would come unstuck if Trump only deals with China and ignores Southeast Asia," said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

News Story: Vietnam, US boost defence ties

Hanoi (VNA) – Chief of the General Staff of Vietnam People’s Army and Deputy Minister of National Defence Phan Van Giang met with Commanding General of the US Army Pacific Robert Brown in Hanoi on February 23.

At the meeting, Giang highlighted the progress in military-defence cooperation between Vietnam and the US in the past time.

The sides have organised joint activities in war aftermath alleviation, search and rescue, and unexploded ordnance disposal, as well as shared experience in UN peacekeeping missions, he added.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Vietnam continues to boost ties with US - Ambassador

Washington (VNA) – Vietnam attaches importance to promoting relations with the new administration and Congress of the US, towards further developing the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership in a practical, effective, stable and long-term manner, a Vietnamese diplomat has stressed.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh made the statement at a reception in Washington DC on February 10 for over 70 advisors and assistants of key offices and committees of the US Congress in the 115th tenure concerning the US’s foreign policy and relations with Asia and Vietnam. 

He praised the role played by the participants and their great contributions to fostering the bilateral relations across fields in recent times, and wished them a success in the Congress’s new tenure.

The ambassador expressed his hope that upcoming trips by US parliamentarians to Vietnam will continue to help develop all-around ties between the two countries for the sake of both nations as well as for peace and stability in Asia Pacific. 

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Vietnamese ambassador believes in thriving ties with US

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh has expressed his belief that the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership will keep thriving for the benefit of the two countries. 

He made the statement during a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency featuring the new Donald Trump-led US administration’s adjustment of policies to Asia-Pacific, the future of Vietnam-US ties and his personal feeling in the context of the US’s power transition. 

Vinh said over the past two decades, Vietnam and the US have seen leaps in bilateral diplomatic ties and become comprehensive partners on the basis of shared benefits. Two-way trade has soared to 50 billion USD from 500 million USD. 

The bilateral partnership has expanded across science-technology, investment, education, national defence-security.  No matter what adjustments President Trump makes, both sides will still maintain existing shared interests and seek new ones, he said, adding that he believes similarities will be much more than differences and new, better cooperative forms will be needed, he noted.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

USA: USS Mustin arrives in Cam Ranh International Port

From USS Mustin Public Affairs

USS Mustin (DDG 89) file photo. (U.S. Navy/PO2 Declan Barnes) >>

NHA TRANG, Vietnam - The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG 89) arrived here Dec. 15 for a routine technical stop that highlights the strong historic, community and military connections between Vietnam and the United States.

During the stop, Mustin Sailors will have a chance to meet with people from Nha Trang to share U.S. culture through sporting events. U.S. Sailors will also learn about Vietnam through local cultural activities.

“Mustin’s Sailors are excited to contribute to our partnership with Vietnam, knowing how important our relationship is to our mutual interests in peace, stability, and adherence to a rules-based international order," said Cmdr. Thane Clare, commanding officer of Mustin. "And of course, we’re really looking forward to experiencing Vietnam’s renowned hospitality, and exploring the great city of Nha Trang.”

“The USS Mustin’s stop in Cam Ranh International Port is an example of the depth of our comprehensive partnership and the importance of strengthening our civilian and military ties,” U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius said.

Mustin, on patrol from Yokosuka, Japan, sails with a crew of 300 Sailors and routinely operates throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific.

US Pacific Fleet

News Report: Vietnam Pivots Away from US-Led Trade Zone as Trump Preps for Office

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — Vietnamese officials once excited by joining the U.S.-led Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a sweeping Pacific Rim trade zone, are looking instead to other deals that would stimulate their export-dependent economy as the pact may die under President-elect Donald Trump.

The Southeast Asian country that has cultivated export manufacturing as an economic backbone since the 1980s is shifting its focus to free trade deals with China, Russia and the European Union in lieu of the TPP, according to observers.

Always doubts US Congress would pass TPP

Vietnam was widely seen as a top beneficiary among the 12 TPP member nations, including three others in Asia. But officials in Hanoi have worried since mid-year that the U.S. Congress would not ratify the deal by a February 2018 deadline.

"I think they were already aware the TPP wouldn't work out," said Oscar Mussons, international business advisory associate with the Dezan Shira & Associates consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City. "I think Vietnam already has lots of free trade agreements signed. It's in the Vietnam government's interests to go and sign the agreements."

News Story: Senator McCain vows to tighten Vietnam-US links

Senator John McCain (Image: Wiki Commons)

Washington DC, December 6 (VNA) – Senator John McCain, Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, has said he will continue working to enhance US-Vietnam ties during a meeting with Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh.

McCain said on December 2 that relations between the two countries have enjoyed progress, both bilaterally and multilaterally, giving momentum to the solidification of their comprehensive partnership.

It is necessary to capitalise on potential in economy, trade, investment, education, science-technology, energy, security-defence and people-to-people exchanges, he noted.

Regarding international and regional matters, McCain said more cooperation is needed to ensure peace, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea on the basis of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus

News Story: Vietnam eyes enhanced relations with US - ambassador

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam will continue cooperating with the new US government, towards strengthening the comprehensive partnership in a practical, long-term and sustainable manner, said Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh.

During talks on future relations between Vietnam and Asia with the US at the National Benefits Centre in Washington on November 16, Vinh highlighted great prospects for the two countries to promote cooperation and Vietnam’s development priorities.

He recalled important milestones in Vietnam-US relations, saying that the two countries have a solid foundation to step up ties.

The two nations established diplomatic ties in 1995, and relations have flourished across various fields far beyond expectations. The bilateral relationship was upgraded to a comprehensive partnership in 2013.

The ambassador also mentioned Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to the US in 2015 and US President Barack Obama’s Vietnam visit in last May, which created impetus to expand cooperation between the two sides in all fields.

The two countries have coordinated at international and regional forums such as the UN, the World Trade Organisation, the Asia -Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and ASEAN.

Read the full story at VietnamPlus