Vietnam Defence Forum

[Viet]

Stronger alliance with Vietnam seen
Duterte trip to boost economic, defense relations with Hanoi

by Genalyn Kabiling
September 28, 2016

Hanoi – Economic and defense relations between the Philippines and Vietnam are expected to be enhanced when President Duterte makes a two-day official visit to Vietnam this week.

The President, with several Cabinet members in tow, is scheduled to arrive in Hanoi Wednesday night for a visit that coincides with the 40th anniversary of Philippines-Vietnam relations this year.

Duterte’s first official activity on Wednesday is a meeting with the Filipino community at the Intercontinental hotel here, based on his schedule. The Philippine leader is expected to discuss his government’s campaign against illegal drugs, crime and corruption when he addresses Filipinos working in this Asian neighbor for the first time.



FROM LAB TO REHAB – President Rodrigo R. Duterte is surrounded by his security escorts from the President Security Group (PSG) as he goes on an inspection of the mega shabu laboratory that was discovered and seized by authorities last week in Arayat, Pampanga. The President said the laboratory will be turned into a rehabilitation facility for drug dependents.
(Camille Ante/Manila Bulletin)


On Thursday, the President will have a packed schedule that includes a flurry of meetings with government as well as communist leaders of Vietnam.

His day starts with wreath-laying ceremonies at the Monument of Heroes and Martyrs and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

The President will then travel to the State Palace for a meeting with Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang to discuss various areas of bilateral exchanges, including maritime cooperation, enhancement of law enforcement and defense cooperation.

It will also be an opportunity for the President to solidify the strategic partnership between the two countries, according to Charles Jose, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman.

Jose had earlier said the leaders are also expected to tackle increasing two-way trade and investments, strengthening of joint cultural activities, as well heightened exchanges in agriculture and fisheries.

“The leaders are also expected to exchange views on regional and international issues. The relations between the two countries have been growing and deepening steadily since formal ties were established on July 12, 1976,” Jose said.

The President is also expected to highlight the importance of keeping peace, stability, and security in the region in the wake of the unresolved territorial dispute in the South China Sea in his meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart.

“And it will be in the context of reaffirming our firm commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes and our adherence to the rule of law,” Jose added.

The Philippines and Vietnam are among the Asian countries with competing claims in the vast South China Sea.

While in Vietnam, the President will also pay a courtesy call on Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc at the Prime Minister’s office.

Another meeting with Nguyen PhuTrong, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, has also been arranged at the state hall.

The President will also be accorded with a state banquet by the Vietnam government before he departs for Manila.

Duterte is expected to return to Davao early Friday morning.


Read more at http://www.mb.com.ph/stronger-alliance-with-vietnam-seen/#674YH2lYD65UV4YU.99

 

[Aqsuperman]

Type 63 rifle in the hand of Militia. Generous capacity compare to SKS yet weight slightly less. Good for long range yet saw little service and quickly withdraw after the AK has reached a sufficient number.

 

[Viet]

September 29, Hanoi
Greeting the president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte

 

[Viet]

US, Vietnam navies work on preventing South China Sea incidents
By ERIK SLAVIN | STARS AND STRIPES Published: September 27, 2016

The USS John McCain steams alongside a replenishment oiler during Valiant Shield drills, Sept. 16, 2016. The Yokosuka-based destroyer will participate in a Naval Engagement Activity with Vietnam, along with sailors from Destroyer Squadron 7 and the Singapore-headquartered Commander Task Force 73.

Nathan Burke/U.S. Navy photo


The Vietnamese and U.S. navies kicked off an expanded exchange Wednesday that will include a focus on preventing unplanned hostilities among ships in contested Asia-Pacific waters.

The Naval Engagement Activity, centered in Da Nang, is a non-combat program, which largely separates it from the named exercises the Navy participates in with several other Southeast Asian nations.

The limitations come by design, as Vietnam balances its warming relations with the United States and its complicated relationship with China.

The engagement has grown considerably since the USS George Washington hosted Vietnamese officials on the 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Washington and Hanoi in 2010.

The Yokosuka-based destroyer USS John S. McCain will participate, along with sailors from Destroyer Squadron 7 and the Singapore-headquartered Commander Task Force 73.

“We’ve expanded the sea phase this year to incorporate a more complex CUES event and search-and-rescue scenario,” Capt. H. B. Le, commodore of Destroyer Squadron 7, said in a statement Wednesday, referring to the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea.

The non-binding communications code was signed by 21 nations at a 2014 multinational symposium in China.

The agreement came after years of low-level tensions between U.S. and Chinese naval ships in the South China Sea. China holds an ambiguous claim to about 90 percent of the sea and dismissed an international tribunal ruling that largely invalidated that claim earlier this year.

China’s claim conflicts with the U.S. position of freedom of navigation in the international waters of the South China Sea, where about $1.2 trillion in U.S. trade transits annually.

Navy officials have told Stars and Stripes that the code, meant to reduce the possibility of a chance encounter growing into conflict, has aided relations with the Chinese navy.

Vietnam also has a vested interest in the code’s success — China’s ships are, on balance, bigger and better armed. However, China’s coast guard vessels and its fishing vessels, which critics have labeled a shadow militia, don’t follow CUES.

Vietnam has accused such Chinese vessels of repeatedly ramming and turning water cannons on Vietnamese fishing boats near the Paracel and Spratly island groups, which both countries claim.

Officials in Washington and in the Navy have called on China to adopt CUES for its coast guard and fishing vessels as well, to reduce the chances of further incidents.

Some in Congress, notably Sen. John McCain, want the U.S. and Vietnam to upgrade their naval relationship beyond the current engagement. A Navy official said Wednesday that how joint training is characterized and composed is led by the Vietnamese.

The Hanoi government must factor its neighbor’s military strength and economic influence into any actions it takes in the South China Sea.

“China represents the most prominent threat to Vietnamese sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Nicholas Chapman, a Vietnam researcher at the International University of Japan, wrote earlier this month for The Diplomat website. “Nevertheless, Vietnam is clearly taking China’s militarization in the South China Sea seriously and is taking bold steps.”

Chapman pointed to Vietnam’s recent installation of EXTRA rocket systems, acquired from Israel, on five bases in the Spratly Islands. The rockets are within reach of military-capable runways and weapons that China has placed atop artificial islands it has constructed during the past few years.

 

[Carlosa]

PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT DUTERTE VISITS VIETNAM BUT U.S. JIBES CAST A SHADOW OVER DIPLOMACY
http://www.newsweek.com/philippines...tnam-china-cooperation-dispute-504084?ref=yfp

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte met Vietnam's top leadership on Thursday, aiming to advance a burgeoning alliance that could become increasingly uncertain amid his defiance of the United States and overtures towards China.

Vietnam and the Philippines have drawn closer as China asserts more vigorously its claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea, but Duterte's almost daily jibes against the United States and his positive rhetoric about China may not sit well with Vietnam's leaders and their quieter, more calibrated diplomacy.

Duterte was greeted by an honor guard before he met his counterpart, Tran Dai Quang, for talks.

He was also due to meet Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and pay Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong a courtesy call. Vietnam has a joint leadership and no paramount ruler.

Hanging over the meetings will be the stir caused by the maverick former Philippine mayor at a function for Filipinos in Hanoi on Wednesday, when he "served notice" to the United States by announcing a cessation of joint military exercises, and ruled out joint navy patrols.

Philippine foreign minister Perfecto Yasay said on Thursday the Philippines would go ahead with the joint exercises with the United States in 2017, but the drills would be reviewed from 2018.

He said the Philippines did not want a military ally and wished to be friends with all countries, and alienate none, and that would be how it would settle disputes in the South China Sea.

While there are questions over U.S.-Philippine ties, thrown into question by Duterte's angry rejection of U.S. concern about his bloody war on drugs, Vietnam's relations with the United States have quickly expanded owing to some U.S. opportunism in the wake of a bitter row in 2014 between Vietnam and China over the South China Sea.

U.S. President Barack Obama visited Vietnam in May and announced the removal of a lethal arms embargo, the last major vestige of the war between them a half century ago, allowing for closer defense links and some joint military exercises.

Duterte's volatility has added to uncertainty about his foreign policy trajectory and experts anticipate that could weigh on a strategic partnership between Vietnam and the Philippines agreed last year by his predecessor, Benigno Aquino.

"Vietnam was quite enthusiastic about its new-found friend in the Philippines under Aquino, but Duterte's constant emotional outbursts against Washington has them a bit concerned," said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia specialist at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said Duterte might consult Vietnam's leaders about how they manage relations with China, the United States, and Japan in what was now "a very complicated environment".

Vietnam may be also be concerned about how Duterte approaches ties with China and whether that could jeopardize regional efforts to forge a unified position on its maritime activities.

"Vietnam would not want Mr Duterte to strike a deal with China over the South China Sea at the expense of Vietnam and other involved states," said political analyst Le Hong Hiep.

"The visit can be a timely opportunity for Mr Duterte to explain his South China Sea policy."

 

[Aqsuperman]

A demonstration at Miếu Môn that involved the test firing of the latest self - produced Gali Ace 31 and 32 with IWI assistance

 

[Carlosa]

Latest pic of the reclamation at Spratly Island

 

[Viet]

a battery of S-300 long range surface to air missiles

This picture shows a vegetable I disliked very much when I was young but love it when I grew up

 

[TenLua]

a battery of S-300 long range surface to air missiles

This picture shows a vegetable I disliked very much when I was young but love it when I grew up

Bitter melon?

Viet Nam need more S-300(S-400 better)

 

[Viet]

Bitter melon?

Viet Nam need more S-300(S-400 better)

Bitter melon soup with meat hackles is the king of melons

a legacy of Vietnam war: US made M41 tank

 

[Viet]

Police

 

[Viet]

 

[Viet]

also a policewomen

 

[Carlosa]

Russia to Hold Drills With India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Vietnam in 2017
https://sputniknews.com/military/20161001/1045892232/russia-drills-2017.html

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He reminded that Russia and Pakistan had been carrying out the first joint Druzhba-2016 ("Friendship-2016") exercises since September 23, adding that on October 4-7 Russia would also engage in joint drills of the collective rapid deployment forces of the Central Asian countries "Rubezh-2016" ("Boundary-2016").

© Sputnik/ Vitaliy Ankov
Russian Pacific Fleet Missile Boats Conduct Artillery Drills in Primorye

"Next year we will conduct joint exercises with troops of Pakistan, India, Mongolia, Vietnam, Nicaragua and CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization's] member states," Salyukov told reporters.

© Sputnik/ Igor Zarembo

The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance of former Soviet states, which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

Next year, Moscow, New Delhi and Islamabad will be allied in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a political, economic and military alliance which includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as India and Pakistan are expected to get full-fledged membership in the organization by 2018.

 

[TenLua]

Russia to Hold Drills With India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Vietnam in 2017
https://sputniknews.com/military/20161001/1045892232/russia-drills-2017.html

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He reminded that Russia and Pakistan had been carrying out the first joint Druzhba-2016 ("Friendship-2016") exercises since September 23, adding that on October 4-7 Russia would also engage in joint drills of the collective rapid deployment forces of the Central Asian countries "Rubezh-2016" ("Boundary-2016").

© Sputnik/ Vitaliy Ankov
Russian Pacific Fleet Missile Boats Conduct Artillery Drills in Primorye

"Next year we will conduct joint exercises with troops of Pakistan, India, Mongolia, Vietnam, Nicaragua and CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization's] member states," Salyukov told reporters.

© Sputnik/ Igor Zarembo

The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance of former Soviet states, which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

Next year, Moscow, New Delhi and Islamabad will be allied in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a political, economic and military alliance which includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as India and Pakistan are expected to get full-fledged membership in the organization by 2018.

lol The politic is such a mess.