BANGKOK — A US aircraft carrier and two guided missile cruisers were visiting Vietnam on Monday, a rare port call that comes as the United States and China increasingly vie for influence in Southeast Asia.
The USS Ronald Reagan, along with the guided missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Robert Smalls, arrived in Da Nang on Sunday for the visit.
Neighbouring China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner but Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea have led to increasing friction with Vietnam, as well as with Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The US, meantime, has been on a diplomatic push to strengthen economic and military ties in the Indo-Pacific region.
The aircraft carrier’s port call — only the third such visit since relations were reestablished after the end of the Vietnam war — follows visits to Vietnam this year from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and USAID Administrator Samantha Power.
“Though aircraft carrier visits often spark media attention because of their highly visible nature, the broader question is how this will play into the development of ties, including Washington’s quest to upgrade relations,” Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Wilson Centre’s Asia Programme, wrote in a research note.
“An overly narrow focus on carrier visits can distract from the broader trend of the more comprehensive development of US-Vietnam defense ties and relations more generally,” Parameswaran added.
Officers from the Ronald Reagan debarked Sunday and were greeted by Vietnamese officers after mooring in Da Nang, a port that was modernised and expanded by the United States during the war for its own use.
