US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Hanoi later this week to oversee the groundbreaking of a new American embassy in the Vietnamese capital, deepen a relationship that will allow supply chain diversification away from China and counter “bullying” in the region.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, touted Washington’s developing relations with Vietnam.
The US and Vietnam are “almost completely aligned on the kind of Indo-Pacific that we want to see ... a region that’s free and open, where all countries large and small play by the same rules, where large countries don’t bully small ones ... and where disputes are resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
“I know for a fact that leaders in both Hanoi and Washington see eye to eye on those matters and that, maybe more than anything, forms the bedrock of this new partnership that we’ve built,” Kritenbrink added.
The visit – immediately before Blinken heads to Karuizawa, Japan, to attend the G7 foreign ministers’ three-day meeting, which starts on Sunday – is meant to follow up on a call that US President Joe Biden had with Vietnam’s General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong last month.
Blinken’s stop in Vietnam, China’s southern neighbour, follows another spike in US-China tensions sparked by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s 10-day overseas trip that included meeting US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
The People’s Liberation Army conducted two days of “combat readiness” exercises near Taiwan, called “Joint Sword”, apparently in response to Tsai’s trip.
Addressing concerns that Tsai’s meeting could provoke Beijing to attack Taiwan and destabilise the region, Blinken and other Biden administration officials have said that Chinese officials have not been receptive to talks on this and other fronts where relations have frayed.
Asked whether Blinken’s visit to Hanoi underscores the importance that Washington places on helping US companies reduce reliance on China for manufacturing and sourcing of products, Kritenbrink said that Vietnam should benefit from this process.
“Vietnam has many advantages as a trading partner,” he added. “Many of us have learned over the last few years that it’s not advantageous for any one country to be overly dependent on a particular partner or a particular supply chain.”
Kritenbrink cited US-Vietnamese annual trade volumes that surpassed US$100 billion in 2022, making Vietnam America’s eighth largest trading partner.
US trade with China – its largest trading partner – stood at US$690 billion last year, despite a tariff war poised to enter a fifth year in July.
‘Time is ripe’: is China-friendly Vietnam ready to upgrade ties with US?
While talks with China have hit a standstill, Washington’s diplomacy with Beijing’s neighbours has yielded some success.
The US and the Philippines, for example, announced a deal in February to give US troops access to an additional four Philippine military bases, seen as a bid to counter China’s more forceful posture in the region.
That deal followed a visit in November to Manila by US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who told President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr that Washington has an “unwavering” commitment to the Philippines. Harris was the highest-ranking US official to visit Manila since Marcos took power in June.
Blinken’s itinerary to countries in China’s immediate vicinity prompted a question in a separate briefing about when he would reschedule a planned trip to Beijing.
Blinken had been poised to make the trip in early February but postponed it after a Chinese surveillance balloon drifted across US airspace.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel reiterated what administration officials have said since the balloon incident derailed progress both sides had begun making toward ending a downward spiral in relations.
Similarly, Patel would not confirm when the postponement should be considered a cancellation.
“We have and intend to continue to keep lines of communications open with the PRC,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China, “and we look forward to rescheduling the secretary’s trip when conditions allow.”
More from South China Morning Post:
- Just how close will Vietnam get to the US to keep China in check?
- Philippines names 4 new camps for US forces amid China fury
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2023.
