The US is giving Vietnam $18 million for patrol boats to counter China

[Viet]

• David Alexander, Reuters

• May 31, 2015, 6:47 PM
  

Via Flickr
HAI PHONG, Vietnam (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter pledged $18 million on Sunday to help Vietnam buy U.S. patrol boats, shortly after touring a Vietnamese coast guard vessel that was hit by a Chinese ship during a skirmish in the South China Sea.

Carter, who has been focusing on maritime security during an 11-day trip to the Asia-Pacific, visited the Vietnamese navy headquarters and coast guard headquarters before boarding the ship.

Carter is on his second visit to Asia since becoming defense secretary earlier this year. He said he planned to sign a "vision statement" on Monday with his Vietnamese counterpart to guide the expansion of bilateral military ties.

"We need to modernize our partnership," Carter told reporters during a visit to the northern city of Hai Phong. "After 20 years, there is more we could do together."

As part of that effort, he said Washington would provide $18 million to help Vietnam buy U.S.-made Metal Shark patrol boats to help Hanoi improve its maritime defense capabilities.

U.S. and Vietnamese navies had been "building habits of cooperation" by working together, he said. In April they conducted exercises under rules laid out in the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, a set of regulations approved by multiple maritime nations last year at a meeting in China.

Carter opened his trip to the Asia-Pacific by calling for all countries to stop island-building efforts in disputed, resource-rich regions of the South China Sea. He reiterated that call at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference on Saturday.

Carter recognized that several countries, including Vietnam, had conducted land reclamation projects in the region but said Chinese activity, covering some 2,000 acres, had outstripped the others and raised questions about Beijing's long-term intentions.

"I will be discussing further with Vietnam the proposal that I was talking about in Singapore, namely for all of the claimants to these disputed areas of the South China Sea ... permanently to halt reclamations," he said. The Vietnamese coast guard vessel toured by Carter was targeted with Chinese water cannons and rammed by a Chinese ship during a confrontation last year.

The incident occurred after China moved an oil drilling rig into waters claimed by Vietnam. The rig remained for about two months protected by Chinese navy vessels, which were repeatedly challenged by Vietnamese ships.


Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-pentagon-chief-pledges-18-million-for-hanoi-to-buy-patrol-boats-2015-5?r=US#ixzz3bnGpm5q4

 

[Viet]

with the funds we can buy with some such 30 US made high-speed patrol boats, and go after chinese and other pirates in the open sea. the US is smart. Win-win for both VN and US

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

wouldn't be surprised if the $18 million will be stretched till $1 billion

 

[Viet]

wouldn't be surprised if the $18 million will be stretched till $1 billion

goods worth $5 trillion a year are transported through the sea lane. if China controls it, she can blackmail US allies Japan, Taiwan and S Korea. the chinese cry and whine when the US declares the SC Sea as its national interest some years ago. yes, we need more firepower. more US donation can help. we serve their interests in the region.

 

[KAL-EL]

wouldn't be surprised if the $18 million will be stretched till $1 billion

Wouldn't be either.. and as a tax paying American citizen, I would have absolutely no issue with it at all.

 

[simple Brain]

with the funds we can buy with some such 30 US made high-speed patrol boats, and go after chinese and other pirates in the open sea. the US is smart. Win-win for both VN and US

you guys were humiliated and your women were raped and your children were burnt alive in Vietnam war by the US, yet you guys haven't learned a single lesson from it, and here you are helping your destroyer against your allay who helped your people and sheltered them from the rage of US butchers. I am quite confident you aren't truly a Vietnamese, if you were you wouldn't have been showing your teeth off after hearing such a news. Because the Vietnamese I know and had lived with, they hate US and they are always against its policies. Nations who do not learn from their past their future is always dark and much more disastrous than their past.

 

[Huan]

Wouldn't be either.. and as a tax paying American citizen, I would have absolutely no issue with it at all.

Well I do. Selling such stuff to one communist country, but not the other communist country? This is the communist regime that killed 60,000+ American troops. Bloodshed wasted, many deaths in vain in the end because of this sale.

 

[Viet]

Wouldn't be either.. and as a tax paying American citizen, I would have absolutely no issue with it at all.

a big cheer to our future cooperation

Well I do. Selling such stuff to one communist country, but not the other communist country? This is the communist regime that killed 60,000+ American troops. Bloodshed wasted, many deaths in vain in the end because of this sale.

come on bro, where is the other half of you: the vietnamese side?
we have urgent security need NOW. Vietnam´s fate is at state. the commie chinese can come tomorrow, take our islands, destroy our cities, killing our people, and you talk of things that happened 50 years ago.

you guys were humiliated and your women were raped and your children were burnt alive in Vietnam war by the US, yet you guys haven't learned a single lesson from it, and here you are helping your destroyer against your allay who helped your people and sheltered them from the rage of US butchers. I am quite confident you aren't truly a Vietnamese, if you were you wouldn't have been showing your teeth off after hearing such a news. Because the Vietnamese I know and had lived with, they hate US and they are always against its policies. Nations who do not learn from their past their future is always dark and much more disastrous than their past.

and you take US money, weapons and so forth although US drones bomb Pakistan from time to time. Why?
Do you believe thinking of the past will save Vietnam TODAY?

 

[Huan]

a big cheer to our future cooperation

come on bro, where is the other half of you: the vietnamese side?
we have urgent security need NOW. Vietnam´s fate is at state. the commie chinese can come tomorrow, take our islands, destroy our cities, killing our people, and you talk of things that happened 50 years ago.


and you take US money, weapons and so forth although US drones bomb Pakistan from time to time. Why?
Do you believe thinking of the past will save Vietnam TODAY?

For Vietnamese Americans whose parents fled by boat from communism, your Vietnames regime is NO friend. There are still yellow-striped Vietnamese flags flying in America, NOT your red Vietnamese flag. This sale would support the power of that regime. For these Americans, you MUST democratize and abandon communism.

 

[KAL-EL]

a big cheer to our future cooperation

come on bro, where is the other half of you: the vietnamese side?
we have urgent security need NOW. Vietnam´s fate is at state. the commie chinese can come tomorrow, take our islands, destroy our cities, killing our people, and you talk of things that happened 50 years ago.


and you take US money, weapons and so forth although US drones bomb Pakistan from time to time. Why?
Do you believe thinking of the past will save Vietnam TODAY?

Yes, here's to future cooperation

it really is ashame that some are still stuck in a time warped mentality of the past. nothing can be done about that. As only logical and rational minded people can look to the present and future. A present and future still with some disagreements yes, but also of open-mindedness and pragmatism.

 

[Huan]

Yes, here's to future cooperation

it really is ashame that some are still stuck in a time warped mentality of the past. nothing can be done about that. As only logical and rational minded people can look to the present and future. A present and future still with some disagreements yes, but also of open-mindedness and pragmatism.

Yea sure, logical rational minded people who would do potential military deals with those who killed tens of thousands of our American troops. Just keep turning the other cheek. Make deals with the devil in desperation.

 

[Viet]

For Vietnamese Americans whose parents fled by boat from communism, your Vietnames regime is NO friend. There are still yellow-striped Vietnamese flags flying in America, NOT your red Vietnamese flag. This sale would support the power of that regime. For these Americans, you MUST democratize and abandon communism.

bullshit. you know too little about Vietnam.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Well I do. Selling such stuff to one communist country, but not the other communist country? This is the communist regime that killed 60,000+ American troops. Bloodshed wasted, many deaths in vain in the end because of this sale.

Going by your logic USA should break all ties with China given Korean war resulted in over 40,000 American deaths plus.

 

[Huan]

bullshit. you know too little about Vietnam.

Oh please, I visited Vietnam before with my Vietnamese father. He and my mom do NOT like the communist regime there.

Going by your logic USA should break all ties with China given Korean war resulted in over 40,000 American deaths plus.

At least we did NOT try to sell China any American military gear to this day, which is good for China's independent development and making her stronger as I was told.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

At least we did NOT try to sell China any American military gear to this day.

USA did until Tainmen Square protests.