Richard Javad Heydarian
Richard Javad Heydarian
Security, Asia
The Navy Just Sent an Aircraft Carrier to Vietnam. Should China Be Worried?
In a remarkable reflection of burgeoning strategic relations between former foes, America deployed an aircraft carrier group to Vietnam for the first time in more than four decades.
The USS Carl Vinson, a 103,000-ton aircraft carrier, along with two other large warships, arrived on Monday at the Vietnamese port of Da Nang on a five-day good will visit.
It marked the largest American military presence on Vietnamese shores since 1975, signaling the emergence of an unlikely alliance between Washington and the Southeast Asian communist regime.
In its National Security Strategy (NSS) paper, released last December, the Trump administration identified Vietnam as a “cooperative maritime partner”, underlining Hanoi’s emergence as a key player in preserving the existing order in the East Asian seascape.
“The visit marks an enormously significant milestone in our bilateral relations and demonstrates US support for a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam,” declared Daniel Kritenbrink, the US ambassador to Vietnam.
“Through hard work, mutual respect, and by continuing to address the past while we work towards a better future, we have gone from former enemies to close partners,” he continued.
What lies at the heart of rapidly warming ties between the two former enemies is the rise of China, particularly its growing military presence across the South China Sea, which has threatened Vietnam’s territorial and maritime interests as well as America’s naval hegemony in Asia.
