U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi, Vietnam, September 11, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Nearly fifty years after the autumn of Saigon, the US agreed to assist construct up Vietnam’s defense capabilities, a tacit acknowledgement that China poses a greater geopolitical challenge today to each nations than they do to one another.
President Joe Biden and General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng of the communist party of Vietnam agreed to “welcome further cooperation in defense industry and defense trade” between the 2 countries in a joint statement released Monday.
“America is committed to continuing to help Vietnam to develop its self-reliant defense capabilities in accordance with the needs of Vietnam and established mechanism.”.
Vietnam upped the U.S.’s diplomatic status to a “comprehensive strategic partner,” the country’s highest tier placing the U.S. on par with China. Biden said the move represented how much relations have moved on from the “bitter past” of the Vietnam War.
“We will trace a 50-year arc of progress between our nations, from conflict to normalization, to this recent elevated status,” Biden said Sunday.
The president said “enormous opportunity” exists between the 2 nations.
“Vietnam and the US are critical partners at what I might argue is a really critical time,” Biden said. “I’m not saying that to be polite.”
Biden stopped in Hanoi, Vietnam over the weekend after attending the Group of 20 summit in Latest Delhi, India. In each countries Biden stressed that Washington’s foreign policy was not meant to “contain China.”
“I don’t desire to contain China,” Biden said at a news conference in Hanoi. “We’re not attempting to hurt China.”
“We expect an excessive amount of in Cold War terms,” Biden said. “I’m sincere about getting the connection right.”
Yet a day later, a top Pentagon official placed the U.S.-China relationship in exactly those terms, underscoring how difficult it’s to shift away from great power competition mindset.
While stressing that “war is not inevitable,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall on Monday warned that China is bolstering its military capabilities to tackle the US.
“Today, the intelligence couldn’t be clearer,” Kendall said on the Air and Space Forces Association annual conference. “Whatever its actual intentions could also be, I couldn’t say, but China is preparing for a war, and specifically for a war with the US.”
