By Lien Hoang, Voice of America
SAIGON — The top U.S. military officer traveled to Vietnam last week to help strengthen regional security at a time when Vietnamese fear armed conflict with China over maritime disputes.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey reviews the honor guard during a welcoming ceremony in Hanoi, Aug. 14, 2014. (Voice of America)
The visit by Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, increased prospects that the United States may soon scrap its weapons embargo on Vietnam. But at the same time, Dempsey tempered hopes of heightened military cooperation with a message that Asia should not look to the United States when it clashes with China.
“I think fundamentally we would all agree that a stronger ASEAN response, which is to say a stronger multinational response, is really what’s appropriate — not necessarily, what does the United States intend to do about it,” Dempsey told a small gathering of reporters here Saturday, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
At issue for Vietnam and China is a swath of water and islands in the South China Sea claimed by both countries as well as four others. Despite repeating the official line that the United States doesn’t “take sides in territorial disputes,” Dempsey mostly referred to the area using the term preferred by Vietnamese, the East Sea. The Philippines, another claimant nation, calls the waters the West Philippine Sea.
Dempsey said that if the weapons ban is repealed, the United States should start by boosting Vietnam’s navy. He noted that Vietnamese military officials haven’t been specific enough as to what hardware they need, but said the two countries are discussing “patrol boats or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets,” as well as “even potentially some weapons for their fleet that they currently don’t have.”
“There’s a growing sense among our elected officials by our administration, by non-governmental organizations, that Vietnam has made progress against the limitations that led to the lethal weapon ban,” Dempsey said, speaking at the American Center, a cultural and educational annex to the consulate in Saigon.
Jonathan London, a professor at the City University of Hong Kong, had a mixed reaction to Dempsey’s remarks.
“The lifting of the arms embargo could be welcome, perhaps, in that it allows Vietnam to be more capable in addressing its security needs,” London said. But he worried that the feuding in the South China Sea “is leading to the militarization of the entire region, an arms race.”
Read the full story by Lien Hoang from Voice of America.
