US AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARRIVES IN VIETNAM ON LANDMARK VISIT
DANANG— A US aircraft carrier arrived on Monday in Vietnam for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, dramatically underscoring the growing strategic ties between the former foes at a time when China’s regional influence is rising.
The gray and imposing silhouette of the USS Carl Vinson could be seen on Monday morning from the clifftops just outside the central Vietnamese city of Danang, where the 103,000ton carrier and two other US ships begin a five-day visit.
Biggest US presence
The arrival of the Vinson marks the biggest US military presence in Vietnam since 1975 but it also illustrates Hanoi’s complex and evolving relationship with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.
Vietnamese envoys had been working for months to ease the concerns of their giant Chinese neighbor over the visit and the prospect of broader security cooperation between Hanoi and Washington, according to diplomats and others familiar with the talks.
Naval deployments
US carriers frequently ply the South China Sea in a rising pattern of naval deployments, and were now routinely shad- owed by Chinese naval vessels, naval officers in the region say.
China’s rapid construction and build-up of the land it holds in the disputed Spratly islands group has alarmed Vietnam and other regional governments as it seeks to enforce its claims to much of the disputed waterway, through which some $3 trillion in trade passes each year.
While some Chinese commentators have used the Vin- son’s presence to demand an even greater Chinese military build-up in the South China Sea, official reaction from Beijing had been relatively muted since the stop was announced in January.
Military diplomacy
That announcement came during a two-day visit to Hanoi by US Defense Secretary James Mattis and followed months of backroom military diplomacy between Hanoi and the Pentagon.
Although no US aircraft carrier had been to Vietnam since the end of the war, other, smaller US warships had made highlevel visits as ties improved in recent years.
That includes a 2016 visit by submarine tender USS Frank Cable and guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain to Cam Ranh Bay, a logistics complex during the Vietnam War.