Trump invites Vietnam's prime minister to visit US
By Reuters/My Pham April 21, 2017 | 02:13 pm GMT+7
US President Donald Trump holds a news conference at the White House. Photo by Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein
The two governments have expressed desire to further promote ties and strengthen their relationship since Trump's election win last November.
U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to visit the United States, Vietnamese government said on its website on Friday.
Vietnam took ties with the U.S. to a new level under former President Barack Obama, keen for the U.S. to maintain its security presence in Asia in the face of territorial claims by giant neighbour China.
The two governments have expressed desire to further promote ties and strengthen their relationship since Trump's election win last November.
U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster has delivered a letter of invitation from Trump to Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, now on a visit to the U.S., the government added.
Last month, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also said he was ready to visit the U.S. to promote ties between the two countries.
Trump will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November.
Vietnam had been one of the top potential beneficiaries of the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement canceled by Trump, but it has also been building links to the U.S. amid a maritime dispute with China.
China claims most of the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim parts of the sea, which commands strategic sea lanes and has rich fishing grounds, along with oil and gas deposits.
Washington lifted a U.S. lethal arms embargo on Vietnam last May, allowing closer defense links and some joint military exercises.
Oh, so the ship wont be used by the navy? Interesting. Our American news networks never specified that the ship was being given to the Vietnamese coast guard, just the country itself. I assumed it was going to be used by the navy in a similiar fashion to what the Filipinos are doing with their Hamilton cutters (classified as frigates).
Off topic, I've been up near a Hamilton before. If that's going to be the largest ship in the coast guard, than damn...the Hamilton's are not that impressive when you see them in person. Then again, I live in San Diego where the huge American naval base and shipyards are, so I'm constantly seeing new large warships being made.
I dont think copying the ship design is beneficial - the Hamilton cutters are so old they even engaged during the civil war. It would be interesting to see them reverse engineer some technology though.
Definitely for the coast guard. The ship will probably be refitted with water hoses and other toys that can be useful to play water games with the chinese. The fact that is large is actually the most important element for Vietnam since they only have a few large ships and they are only 90 meters long so at 115 m long, the Hamilton will be very useful when it comes to ramming chinese ships.