ABC News:
HANOI — The United States and Vietnam pledged to boost relations as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Hanoi on Saturday as part of the Biden administration’s push to counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
Blinken and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Saturday vowed to bring ties to a new level. Their meeting came just two weeks after the 50th anniversary of the withdrawal of American combat forces from South Vietnam that marked the end of America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam war.
And it came as Blinken was set to break ground on a sprawling new $1.2 billion U.S. embassy compound in the Vietnamese capital, a project the administration hopes will demonstrate its commitment to further improving ties less than 30 years after diplomatic relations were restored in 1995.
Despite concerns over Vietnam’s human rights record, Washington sees Hanoi as a key component of its strategy for the region and has sought to leverage Vietnam’s traditional rivalry with its much larger neighbor China to expand U.S. influence in the region.
“We now hope to be able to take (relations) to an even higher level,” Blinken said.
“This has been a very comprehensive and effective relationship and going forward we will continue to deepen relations,” Chinh said “We highly appreciate the role and responsibility of the U.S. towards the Asia-Pacific or, in the larger scheme, the Indo-Pacific.”
He added that Vietnam’s communist government is keen to “further elevate our bilateral ties to a new height.”
Along with a number of China’s smaller neighbors, Vietnam has maritime and territorial disputes with the Chinese in the South China Sea. The U.S. has responded by offering diplomatic support and bolstering military cooperation with the Philippines and the island of Taiwan, which China claims as a renegade province.
And five decades after the Nixon administration pulled U.S. combat forces out of Vietnam on March 29, 1973, Washington is pressing ahead with a push to increase its military relationship with the Vietnamese.
