From AFP
Hanoi: The United States on Monday offered fresh financial assistance to Vietnam to boost maritime security on its borders, which comes as regional tension grows with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh during a talk in Hanoi Monday, Dec. 16, 2013. Secretary of State Kerry is in Vietnam pressing the communist country on democratic and economic reforms and offering U.S. assistance to protect its maritime borders. (AP Photo/Hoang Dinh Nam, Pool) (The Associated Press)
On his first visit to Vietnam as secretary of state, John Kerry said the United States intended to provide up to $18 million in new assistance to Vietnam “to enhance the capacity of coastal patrol units to deploy rapidly for search and rescue, disaster response, and other activities”.
Kerry said the funding would also be used to buy five “fast” patrol boats for Vietnam’s coastguard in 2014.
Kerry made the announcement following talks in the capital, Hanoi, with the leaders of the communist country.
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