US opens Southeast Asia CDC office in Hanoi

[Viva_Viet]

By Viet Anh August 25, 2021 | 10:06 pm GMT+7

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the launch of the U.S. CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi, August 25, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Vu Anh.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched its Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi Wednesday to facilitate pandemic responses in an interconnected world.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, visiting U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has taught countries that the world is more interconnected and interdependent than ever before and the threats nations face are accelerating more rapidly.

In this new era, partnership is essential. Countries must be willing to take on the challenges together to create opportunities. Nations know that the Covid-19 pandemic will not be the last threat of its kind that people face, countries should be better prepared for the next one, she said.
In this context, the U.S. wants to help improve public health infrastructure across Southeast Asia, Harris said, adding that her country strongly supports ASEAN's centrality by helping member countries acquire expertise and infrastructure for dealing with Covid-19 and other pandemics in the future.
"That is why the launch of this CDC office and our work together is so very important."
Harris noted that 110 million vaccine doses have shipped out worldwide from the U.S.; and more than 23 million of these have been delivered to Southeast Asia.
The U.S. has also pledged $500,000 for the ASEAN Covid-19 Response Fund to support the purchase of more vaccines. It has provided more than $150 million in emergency assistance for the countries of this region to administer vaccines and to help patients recover, she said.
The U.S wants to work with ASEAN to improve readiness and response in the inevitable event of a future pandemic or another public health crisis. The opening of a regional CDC office is a true testament of the U.S.’s commitment to this region, she said.
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh said the launch of the CDC regional office in Hanoi demonstrated the development and vast potential of the comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the U.S.
It also reflected the high priority that the U.S government places on cooperation with the region in health care and disease control. This is a testament to the ever growing collaboration between the U.S and the region, for mutual interest and for global efforts to protect the health of the people, he said.
"We are also convinced that the office in Hanoi will work closely with partners within and outside the region in pursuit of the crucial goal of ensuring the best healthcare services for the people."
Minh said Southeast Asian countries and the U.S have worked closely together to combat the pandemic, mitigate consequences and foster economic recovery. These endeavors include cooperation to maintain supply chains and mutual assistance in terms of medical equipment and supplies.
He said he hoped that Harris will continue to devote due attention to encouraging U.S. partners to provide vaccines, medications and medical equipment to Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam in a timely manner "to help countries overcome the pandemic, resume production and business activities and foster economic development...."

National, regional priority

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky re-emphasized VP Harris’s statement that the U.S. and partners share the understanding that health security must be a national security priority. And given that such diseases know no borders, it is also a regional security priority.
"The new office in Hanoi will be essential for global health security and help countries strengthen public health fundamentals throughout the region. It will be the hub for understanding the unique health challenges in Southeast Asia, and in doing so will undoubtedly save many, many lives," Walensky said.
Chair of the ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting, Indonesia's Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said he believed that the U.S.-ASEAN partnership was a stepping stone for countries in the region to build stronger, more responsive and resilient health systems, especially in facing future threats to global health security.
ASEAN looks forward to the U.S. CDC exploring areas of collaborations, the provision of technical assistance, exchanges in supporting the operations of ASEAN Center for Public health emergencies and emerging diseases, he said, adding: "The first priority is achieving ASEAN vaccine security and self-reliance, which is very important right now."
John MacArthur, MD, will be the new CDC Southeast Asia Regional Director. Prior to this appointment, Dr. MacArthur served as the CDC Thailand country director for more than six years. He also served as the CDC’s Team Lead for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, a $620 million per year program to control malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and the Greater Mekong Sub-region.
According to the U.S Embassy in Hanoi, in addition to the Southeast Asia Regional Office, CDC also recently established Regional Offices in Eastern Europe/Central Asia (Georgia), the Middle East/North Africa (Oman), and South America (Brazil).
The embassy said CDC was "uniquely suited to increase American engagement and collaboration with Southeast Asian leaders to enhance regional capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases and other emerging health threats."
It said priorities for the new regional office would include: building tomorrow's public health workforce; expanding regional public health laboratory training; developing innovative programs to improve health for mobile and migrant populations; ensuring a coordinated response to public health emergencies through networked Emergency Operation Centers; and strengthening the early warning system for the detection of zoonotic and emerging infectious diseases.

US opens Southeast Asia CDC office in Hanoi - VnExpress International

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched its Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi Wednesday to facilitate pandemic responses in an interconnected world.

e.vnexpress.net

 

[Viva_Viet]

Ms Kamala Harris said the United States wants to upgrade its relationship with Vietnam to a strategic partnership.PHOTO: AFP

• UPDATED
  AUG 26, 2021, 4:52 PM

HANOI (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) – US Vice-President Kamala Harris on Wednesday (Aug 25) urged countries in the region to apply more pressure on China in a meeting with Vietnam’s president, stepping her criticism of Beijing on a visit to Asia.
She said the United States welcomes competition and does not seek conflict with Beijing, but will speak up on issues like the South China Sea.
“We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims,” Ms Harris said at the start of a meeting in Hanoi with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

She said the United States wants to upgrade its relationship with Vietnam to a strategic partnership, and said the Biden administration strongly supports the former US adversary’s request for a third former US Coast Guard cutter.
Ms Harris’ speech on Wednesday was the second time in two days that she has attacked Beijing during her regional visit.
Ms Harris told a news conference marking the end of a trip to South-east Asia: “We are going to speak up when there are actions that Beijing takes that threaten the rules-based international order.”



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Earlier in the day, Chinese state media accused Ms Harris of seeking to drive a wedge between China and South-east Asian nations with comments in Singapore that Beijing used coercion and intimidation to back its unlawful South China Sea claims.
China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan, lay claim to parts of the South China Sea, which is crossed by vital shipping lanes and contains gas fields and rich fishing grounds.
China has established military outposts on artificial islands in the South China Sea and objects to foreign warships sailing through what it claims is its sovereign waters.
The US Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” operations through the disputed waters, which China objects to, saying they do not help promote peace or stability.

In 2016, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled against China’s claim, but Beijing has rejected the ruling.
Chinese state media hits back
“While pointing a finger at China and accusing it of ‘coercion’ and ‘intimidation’, Harris wilfully ignored her own hypocrisy in attempting to coerce and intimidate regional countries to join Washington in its scheme to contain China,” the state-run China Daily said in an editorial responding to Ms Harris’ comments in Singapore.
Ms Harris’ Singapore speech was a baseless attack on China, the editorial said.
“It seems that the United States’ only commitment to South-east Asia is its dedicated efforts to drive a wedge between the south-east Asian nations and China,” it added.
The US administration has called rivalry with China “the biggest geopolitical test” of the century and South-east Asia has seen a series of high-profile visits by top administration officials, including Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, who visited Hanoi in late July.
Kamala Harris pledges to help Vietnam in South China Sea

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China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and Vietnam is heavily reliant on materials and equipment from China for its manufacturing activities.
Their ruling Communist Parties maintain close ties, but Vietnam and China have been embroiled in a long-standing dispute over maritime claims in the South China Sea, known as the East Sea in Vietnam.
The tensions have propelled Vietnam into being one of the most vocal opponents of Beijing’s claims in the disputed waterway and Hanoi has received US military hardware, including coastguard cutters.
Ties between Hanoi and Washington have grown closer more than four decades after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, although Washington has said there are limits to the relationship until Hanoi makes progress on human rights.
Analysts say Vietnam wants to upgrade its diplomatic relationship with the US to a “strategic partnership” but is concerned such a move would anger Beijing.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc attend a bilateral meeting at the Mirror Room of the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on Aug 25, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

US and China’s vaccine diplomacy
On Wednesday, also said the US would donate an additional 1 million Pfizer vaccines to Vietnam, which would start arriving within the next 24 hours, bringing the total to 6 million so far.
Vaccines have been at the forefront of an American diplomatic offensive in South-east Asia, with the region accounting for about a fifth of all doses the US has given globally.
The Biden administration is aiming to bolster ties with countries in China’s backyard, with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and now Ms Harris visiting the region over the past few weeks.
Mr Phuc, who spoke before Ms Harris, said US assistance on vaccinations “is truly valuable and meaningful to Vietnam at a time when we are facing with ample difficulties posed by the Covid- 19 pandemic”.
Press were escorted out of their meeting room before any Vietnamese officials commented on her suggested diplomatic upgrades. Mr Phuc did not mention China in his remarks.
While Vietnam has become increasingly worried about China’s assertiveness over disputed territory, it has avoided overtly siding against Beijing along with other South-east Asian nations keen to balance ties between the world’s biggest economies.
Vietnam announced on Tuesday that China would give it another 2 million vaccine doses, with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh telling Beijing’s envoy that his country maintains an independent foreign policy and wouldn’t join an alliance against another country.
Vaccine diplomacy is also a critical part of China’s political calculus.
Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month announced plans to expand vaccine exports to two billion doses this year, matching commitments by Group of Seven nations.
Just 1.9 per cent of Vietnam’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, among the lowest vaccination rates anywhere in Asia.

US Vice President Kamala Harris walks with Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (left) in the Government office in Hanoi on Aug 25, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

‘Huge opportunities’
Ms Harris will later on Wednesday hold a discussion with South-east Asian officials on health security, before launching the Southeast Asia regional office for the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The US has donated 5 million vaccine doses to Vietnam, the Embassy in Hanoi said last month.
Ms Harris’ trip to Singapore and Vietnam has been overshadowed by Afghanistan, where a rapid collapse of the US-backed government has left the Biden administration rushing to evacuate Americans and those who assisted their 20-year war effort against the Taleban, which now controls almost all of the country.


“US businesses and other businesses from the other parts of the world see huge opportunities for growth,” Mr Ted Osius, president and CEO of the US-Asean Business Council, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
“Security is really about more than ships and planes, it’s also about ties between nations, and what I think the vice-president is doing is cementing those ties in multiple areas on the two stops of her trip.”
Ms Harris’ departure from Singapore on Tuesday was delayed for more than three hours because of concerns about “an anomalous health incident” in Hanoi, the State Department said.

The phrase “anomalous health incidents” describes so-called Havana syndrome, which has afflicted dozens of US diplomats and intelligence officials who describe feeling ill and other unusual physical sensations after hearing strange sounds. The US has not determined a cause for the affliction.

US V-P Kamala Harris urges more China pressure in meeting with Vietnam leader

It was the second time in two days that Ms Harris has attacked Beijing; Chinese state media has hit back. Read more at straitstimes.com.

www.straitstimes.com

 

[REhorror]

Why does Hanoi do this?
I hope it doesn't lead to US troops in Vietnam.

Such dumb dumb.

 

[Viet]

Why does Hanoi do this?
I hope it doesn't lead to US troops in Vietnam.

Such dumb dumb.

No no
No troops
The US airforce will transport 77 super freezers to Vietnam by air in September.
Those freezers are needed to store the 50 million Pfizer vaccines.