HANOI: The most senior US military officer to visit Vietnam for decades held talks with Communist Party officials in Hanoi yesterday, in the latest boost to ties between the former wartime foes.
General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with top Vietnamese military officials including Minister of Defence Phung Quang Thanh, and was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung later yesterday.
Before going into the closed-door meeting Dempsey told reporters that his visit was the “highlight” of his military career.
According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Defence, the visit is the first by a US Joint Chiefs of Staff and aims to “promote friendly bilateral relations” between the two countries, who fought a bitter decade-long war which ended with Vietnam’s reunification in 1975.
Talks will focus on boosting military cooperation with a focus on maritime security, search and rescue, and overcoming the consequences of war, the ministry said in a statement.
Hanoi is currently locked in a bitter maritime dispute with Beijing over disputed waters and island chains in the South China Sea.
But military cooperation is limited due to a US ban on sales of lethal weapons to Vietnam, although the US has indicated it may consider easing this as the communist country has made some progress on human rights issues.
Dempsey is also expected to travel to central Danang, once home to a key US military base during the war, where the US has launched an effort to clean up dioxins from the site.
The Americans sprayed defoliants over vast swathes of jungle in South Vietnam during the war in an attempt to flush out Viet Cong guerrillas by depriving them of tree cover and food.
AFP
