Rumsfeld visits Vietnam to boost military ties
HANOI - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Vietnam on Sunday for a visit aimed at boosting security ties with a former foe that now shares American wariness about China's rising military might.
Rumsfeld's
Pentagon has built close ties to Asian countries ranging from Vietnam to Mongolia and modernized its alliances with Japan and
South Korea to reflect post-Cold War demands for smaller, nimbler forces to cope with regional contingencies.
U.S. military ties with Hanoi, 31 years after the end of the Vietnam war and 11 years after the normalization of diplomatic ties, have warmed gradually with ship visits and modest medical and educational exchanges.
Asked on Sunday if he had set targets for military cooperation, Rumsfeld said: "I don't have a wish list and I don't have a set of things we are trying to achieve."
"What we want to see is a relationship between our country and Vietnam evolve in a way that is comfortable to them and comfortable to us," he told reporters traveling with him.
He praised Hanoi for its cooperation in finding the remains of soldiers who went missing during the Vietnam war for allowing U.S. forces unlimited overflights during rescue missions after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Rumsfeld, the second Pentagon chief to visit Vietnam since the fall of U.S. ally South Vietnam in 1975, will hold talks in Hanoi on Monday with his Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Tra and Prime Minister Pham Van Khai.
"They have China next door to them and they're careful to keep good relations with China and they want a balance in relations with us and relations with China," said a senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
U.S. ties with China likewise mix robust trade flows and cooperation on anti-terrorism and nuclear proliferation troublespots like
Iran and
North Korea with a wariness about China's military that Rumsfeld has highlighted on his Asian tour.
China should "demystify"
On Saturday, Rumsfeld told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum of defense experts and officials in Singapore, that China should "demystify" its military spending and strategic intentions to ease fears among neighbors.
Asian defense officials seldom publicly echo or endorse Rumsfeld's stern views on China, but Pentagon officials say they hear counterparts voice similar concern in private.
"All these countries want constructive relations with China but are a little uneasy about the points exactly as we've described them: a modernization, a lack of transparency," said the senior Pentagon official.
"It isn't just the U.S. that has these concerns," he added.
Rumsfeld said another
U.S. Navy ship will visit Vietnam this summer. Under the Pentagon's International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, Vietnamese pilots will go to the United States for English-language training.
He said the United States was not seeking access to military facilities in Vietnam.
"We do have an evolving military-to-military relationship. Vietnam is an important country and they're a country that we value our relationship with, but it certainly isn't anything that involves military basing," he told reporters in Singapore.
Vietnam, a member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, will play host to
President Bush at this year's annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, a key economic grouping.
Last week, U.S. and Vietnamese officials signed a pact that paves the way for Hanoi to join the
World Trade Organization by year-end. The deal requires Vietnam to cut tariffs and other barriers on a host of American goods and services.
Experts say the cautious pace at which security ties are growing belie the long-term regional significance.
"In the short term, renewed military ties are part of the complete package of normal relations between two friendly countries," said Asia security expert Dana Dillon at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.
"In the long term, as Vietnam develops economically and politically, Vietnam will play an important role in ASEAN and a strong and friendly Southeast Asia will prevent the region from becoming a cockpit of super power competition," he said.
By Paul Eckert - Reuters - June 4, 2006.
Rumsfeld calls for stronger military ties with Vietnam
HANOI - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday the United States wants to expand its military relationship with Vietnam, but has no plans to seek access to military facilities in this former enemy nation.
Arriving in Hanoi just days after the United States signed a trade agreement with Vietnam, Rumsfeld planned to meet with the U.S. military team involved in finding and identifying the remains of hundreds of U.S. servicemen still missing in action from the Vietnam war.
En route to Hanoi, Rumsfeld talked only generally about his goals for the U.S. military relationship with a country that has come to symbolize one of the military's most divisive and politically explosive wars.
"I don't have a wish list and I don't have a set of things we're trying to achieve," he said. "What we want to see is a relationship between our country and Vietnam evolve in a way that is comfortable to them and comfortable to us. And it has been doing that over recent years and I suspect it will continue on that path."
Critics of the current Iraq war and Rumsfeld's leadership have compared it to the Vietnam conflict, noting that in both public support eroded as time went on with little to show for the loss of American lives.
On the trade deal with the United States, which removes one of the last major hurdles in Hanoi's bid to join the World Trade Organization, Rumsfeld said he's been impressed with the Vietnam people and their economy.
"They've got a very good growth rate. They have a sizable population and they're industrious. And I think it would be a good thing to be in the WTO," he said.
Congress would have to vote before the August recess to grant permanent normal trade relations to Vietnam in order for the WTO membership to move forward.
This is Rumsfeld's first trip to Vietnam as defense secretary, and it comes more than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam war. He previously visited the country twice in the late 1960s as a member of Congress, then returned as a private citizen about a decade ago.
The Associated Press - June 4, 2006.
Rumsfeld in Vietnam as ties warm
HANOI - US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld is visiting Vietnam in a sign of growing military co-operation between two former foes.
It is the first visit by a US defence minister in six years - and only the second visit since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.
It is too early to talk of an emerging military alliance between Vietnam and the US.
However, both sides are taking steps towards security co-operation.
They have held a joint conference on military medicine, Vietnam has signed onto an American military training programme and US ships have visited Vietnamese ports.
The US military wants access to facilities in the region and Vietnam does have a strategic position on the South China Sea.
Military bases
However, Mr Rumsfeld has denied suggestions that he will be discussing the use of military bases on this visit.
The issue is sensitive for Vietnam, which needs to balance ties with the US against its relations with China.
Vietnam may share a Communist ideology with its huge northern neighbour but is extremely wary of Beijing's regional ambitions. That is something which Hanoi and Washington can agree on, at least in private.
For now, the talk will be of co-operation against terrorism and of Vietnam's desire to offer troops for United Nations peacekeeping duties as part of its efforts to win a seat on the UN Security Council in 2008.
By Bill Hayton - BBC News - June 4, 2006.
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