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  • US military chief visits Vietnam to boost ties

    US military chief visits Vietnam to boost ties
    Source: "news.yahoo.com"

    U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, right, and Vietnamese Chief of General Staff of the Army, Lt. Gen. Do Ba Ty, left, review an honor guard before their talks in Hanoi, Vietnam on Thursday Aug. 14, 2014. Dempsey will hold talks with Vietnamese defense officials Wednesday on a visit that aims to boost military ties between the two former foes. (AP Photo/Tran Van Minh)

    HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, held talks with Vietnamese officials Thursday aimed to boosting military ties between the former foes.

    Speaking to his Vietnamese counterpart Lt. Gen. Do Ba Ty before the closed-door talks, Dempsey described his visit, the first to communist Vietnam by a American chairman of the joint chiefs of staff since 1971 when the Vietnam War was on, as "one of the highlights" of his military career.

    The sides will work to boost their military cooperation, with a focus on maritime security, training, and overcoming the consequences of the war, a Vietnamese Ministry of Defense statement said.

    During his four-day stay, Dempsey will have talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh. He is expected to visit a former U.S. air base in Danang in central Vietnam, where the U.S. two years ago began a landmark project to clean up Agent Orange from the site.

    Part of the former base consists of a dry field where U.S. troops once stored and mixed the defoliant before it was loaded onto planes to be sprayed to deny forest cover for the communist fighters during the war.

    Bilateral trade and investment relations have grown quickly since the normalization of relations in 1995, making the U.S. one of Vietnam's top trading partners and investors, but military cooperation has been limited because of a U.S. ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam.

    The U.S. has indicated that it may partially lift the ban as early as next month, saying Vietnam progressed on human rights.

    Closer military ties between Vietnam and the United States may anger China, which has been more assertive recently on maritime claims that overlap with claims by Vietnam.

    Russia is Vietnam's main source of armaments, and Hanoi has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to build more vessels to improve its maritime capability.

  • #2
    Top US general raises hopes of easing arms ban to Vietnam
    Source: "news.yahoo.com"

    The United States could help build Vietnam's naval capacity if a ban on selling lethal weapons to the authoritarian nation is lifted, the most senior US military officer to visit Vietnam for decades said Saturday.

    General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that "in the near term" there would be a discussion in the United States about whether to lift the ban introduced over human rights concerns.

    Dempsey was speaking to reporters in southern Ho Chi Minh City during a four-day visit to the country during which he has met top military officials to discuss strengthening military cooperation.

    "The maritime domain is the place of our greatest common interest right now... and my recommendation if the ban is lifted will be that we start with that," he said.

    Trade has flourished between former wartime foes America and Vietnam since the countries normalised ties in 1995. But military cooperation is limited due to a US ban on sales of lethal weapons.

    Hanoi is currently locked in a bitter maritime dispute with Beijing over disputed waters and island chains in the South China Sea.

    In May, Beijing moved a deep sea oil rig into waters that Hanoi claims, setting off violent anti-China riots in Vietnam and triggering a high-seas standoff around the rig.

    Beijing removed the rig in July, claiming its mission has been successfully completed.

    Dempsey said he was not asking Vietnam "to choose between being a friend of the United States and a friend of China."

    "We’ve been very clear that we don’t take sides in territorial disputes, but we do care very much about how they’re resolved," Dempsey said, adding it was "unfortunate" that China had not accepted a proposed freeze on provocative acts in disputed waters.

    China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of its neighbours, and has become increasingly assertive in staking those claims.

    Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have competing claims to parts of the sea.

    Vietnam's authoritarian leaders have struggled to balance traditionally warm ties with fellow communists in Beijing with widespread anti-China sentiment among the population.

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