Announcement made by General Nguyen Chi Vinh, deputy defense minister, after meeting with an American delegation. Hanoi will accept Washington's influence in the region "as long as it will bring peace and prosperity". After the cooling of relations with Thailand and the Philippines, the United States reaches out to Vietnam to cut off Beijing’s ambitions.
Hanoi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Vietnam will support "the US intervention in the Asia-Pacific region, as long as this will help maintain peace, stability and prosperity”, stated General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of the Vietnamese Defense, after meeting Cara Abercrombie, Deputy US Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia.
The words of the general come at a sensitive time for Washington's policy in the region, committed to the containment of China – which is growing increasingly aggressive in the dispute over the South China Sea - and where relations with the new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterteare still uncertain . In these days Duterte is in China, where is expected to strengthen relations with China.
Washington has also frozen the talks with another major local partner, Thailand, since the coup that brought the military junta to power in 2014.
Another factor of uncertainty is the US presidential elections scheduled for November, which cast even more doubt on the future US policy in the region.
Over the past two years, the cooling of relations with the Philippines and Thailand, have resulted in stronger ties between the US and Vietnam. The nations have found a common goal in the need to contain Beijing in the South China Sea. In August 2015, the head of the Vietnamese Communist Party paid a visit to the White House after decades of diplomatic silence. Last May, Barack Obama traveled to Hanoi, where he announced the complete removal of the US embargo on arms sales to Vietnam, its historic enemy.
In early October, two US warships made stopovers in the new international port of Cam Ranh Bay, in a symbolic return of the US armed forces to Vietnam.