That would remove a final vestige of wartime animosity but would not please China, which views growing US defense ties in its backyard with deep suspicion amid rising military tensions in the South China Sea. But Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, talked about what’s at stake on a recent visit to Vietnam along with Tom Malinowski, the administration’s top human rights envoy.
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Obama and Vietnam’s four leaders will discuss a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, including politics, security, investment, trade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), science, technology, education, training, legacies of the Vietnam War, climate change and human rights.
Authoritarian Vietnam released one of the country’s longest serving prisoners of conscience on Friday, just days before US President Barack Obama is due to visit, the Catholic Church said.
But it remains uncertain whether military cooperation between the USA and Vietnam will advance smoothly, because the Vietnamese armed forces rely on Russian weapons for more than 90% of their equipment.
White House officials made clear that the final decision would be linked in part to Vietnam’s human rights situation.
But rights activists fear this deepening closeness may prompt Washington to go easier on Vietnam over its dismal rights record.
The risk of confrontation with Beijing is already growing as the USA challenges China’s island-building and assertive behavior in the South China Sea, where five other Asian governments, including Vietnam, have territorial claims.
“Many countries have expressed deep concern about some of the behavior of China, a major claimant, in reclaiming land and conducting large-scale construction and in militarizing outposts in the South China Sea”, Russel said. These perceived attempts by China to expand its influence into the wider region have led to it being viewed as a common security threat by both Vietnam and the United States, resulting in a remarkable rapprochement between two historical enemies.
But Beijing will be guarded in its reaction because Vietnam is a fraternal communist neighbor.
White House concerns about Vietnam’s lack of progress on civil liberties and political freedoms have held up a decision to end the ban on arms sales -first imposed on North Vietnam in 1964 and later extended to cover the entire country after the USA -backed South Vietnamese government fell in 1975.
Relations began their transformation following the visit of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Hanoi in July 2012; whilst in October 2014, the USA eased some of the restrictions laid out in the decades-old arms embargo. Despite the ties between their ruling parties, they fought a border war in 1979 in which thousands died, and clashes in 1988 over their conflicting claims in the South China Sea claimed dozens of lives.
Former President Bill Clinton announced the formal normalization of diplomatic relations between the U.S and Vietnam in 1995.
USA relations with Vietnam have become deeper and more diverse in the years since political normalization.
Recent weeks have seen worrying ongoing examples of human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said.
Vietnam’s needs dovetail with those of the United States, which has been encouraging maritime states in Southeast Asia to better defend themselves, an effort partly aimed at keeping the United States from being dragged into a direct naval conflict with China. The U.S. wants to reinforce its cooperation in the field of defense with Vietnam, as well as with the Philippines, and the removal of the weapons exports ban is a prerequisite for that. The government also holds its once-in-five years National Assembly election for 500 seats on Sunday, and is “determined to prevent hostile and reactionary forces from damaging the election”, according to a statement on the parliament’s website.
The move would allow Vietnam to further modernise its armed forces as a counter to China at a time of heightened tensions over Beijing’s aggressive claim to nearly all the South China Sea.
As many as 324 shuttlers from 15 countries and regions will take part in the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam International Challenge 2016, in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.
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