Last week, Philip Davidson,
the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, embarked on his first visit to
Vietnam in his current capacity. Though the headlines focused on the
development itself, its significance should be understood in the
As I have observed before in
these pages, over the decades, U.S.-Vietnam defense cooperation has slowly
grown to encompass areas including maritime security, humanitarian assistance
and disaster relief, and peacekeeping. This realm of the relationship has
deepened further across the board under the Trump administration, even amid
some lingering concerns about wider aspects of the administration’s Asia policy
and some challenges Vietnam has been facing in terms of its own domestic and
foreign policy.
That has continued on into
2019 as well. Despite some lingering challenges and limitations in the defense
relationship, there have been developments to reinforce this aspect of ties,
with one recent example on the capacity-building side being the delivery of
another six Metal Shark patrol vessels to the Vietnamese Coast Guard publicly announced
earlier this month. Both sides are also
considering initiatives to boost defense ties still further, including
another U.S. aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam and high-level visits by
Vietnamese officials to the United States.
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