The USS Ronald Reagan’s visit to Danang Harbor coincides with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the “comprehensive partnership” between the United States and Vietnam. According to AFP correspondents, against the backdrop of concerns about China’s growing influence in the region.
A Chinese survey boat, several coast guard vessels and fishing boats have been working in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea for weeks, prompting Vietnam’s foreign ministry to order them to leave immediately. The boats finally left in early June.
China claims most of the resource-rich waterway, despite parallel claims by other countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
“The visit sends a message that Vietnam is balancing against China by improving security relations with the US and other foreign countries,” Nguyen Thi Phuong, a maritime security expert at the University of New South Wales Canberra, told AFP.
Japan’s largest warship docked at Cam Ranh earlier this week, following the arrival of a US aircraft carrier and Indian naval ships in Danang last month.
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Pham Thuy Hong said earlier this week that the docking of foreign boats in the country’s ports was a “normal friendly expression of peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world,” AFP reported.
Strong bilateral ties between the United States and Vietnam are critical if Washington seeks to become a dominant power in the region, says Fung.
“By sending one of its most important naval vessels, the United States hopes to establish a partnership that can be trusted and trusted in Vietnam,” he stressed.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken paid a brief visit to Hanoi last April and made no secret of his desire to develop diplomatic ties.
This will be the third visit of a US aircraft carrier to Vietnam after the USS Carl Vinson docked in 2018 and the first since the end of the war. The visit included several cultural and social events.
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