U.S. carrier to visit Vietnam
Ship’s appearance in Danang likely to irritate China
HANOI, Vietnam — A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is expected to make a port visit to Vietnam in March, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday. It would be the first such visit in the postwar era.
The planned visit to Danang is likely to irritate China, which is critical of U.S. moves to add to its military muscle in the region.
Mattis and his counterpart, Ngo Xuan Lich, discussed the planned carrier visit during a closed-door meeting, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said. Davis said the Vietnamese are awaiting final approval by more senior government authorities, but Mattis appeared to indicate it was a done deal.
“Thank you for the increasing partnership with our aircraft carrier coming in to Danang here in March,” Mattis said in remarks opening a meeting with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Mattis also thanked him for Vietnam’s support for toughening United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea.
The Vietnamese Defense Ministry said separately that the two defense ministries had submitted their proposals for a U.S. carrier port visit to their leaders. The idea was floated last summer when Lich met Mattis at the Pentagon.
The two met again in Hanoi on Thursday during Mattis’ first trip to the Southeast Asian nation.
“We recognize that relationships never stay the same. They either get stronger or they get weaker, and America wants a stronger relationship with a stronger Vietnam,” Mattis told Lich.
In a written statement after Mattis’s meeting with Lich, the Vietnamese Defense Ministry said Lich had given Mattis “war artifacts of U.S. military personnel in the war.” It did not elaborate.