The United States is moving toward selling arms to Vietnam for maritime security, further advancing a process that has turned a once-bitter enemy into a strategic partner.
Secretary of State John Kerry made the announcement in a meeting Thursday with visiting Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
“This policy supports Vietnam’s efforts to improve its maritime domain awareness and maritime security capabilities,” she told reporters.
She did not name the specific types of weapons being considered, but news reports say Vietnam has expressed interest in buying Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion maritime surveillance planes.
Shared concerns about Chinese assertiveness in East Asia, particularly in the South China Sea, has driven Washington and Hanoi closer together in the generation after the Vietnam War. Some the biggest supporters of that move are U.S. veterans of the eight-year conflict who are now in high positions, such as Kerry and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was a “guest” of Hanoi for five years as a prisoner of war.
McCain, sponsor of a Senate resolution supporting arms sales to Vietnam, welcomed Thursday’s announcement.
“Easing the lethal arms ban on Vietnam for the purpose of maritime security will strengthen our defense cooperation in ways that benefit both countries,” he said. “How much more we can do in this regard, and how quickly we are able to do it, depends greatly on additional steps by Vietnam to respect and defend the human rights of the Vietnamese people.”
