Ali said!
Vietnam values its cooperative relationship with the U.S., Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh said, as a major security summit in Brunei puts Vietnam in focus as an emerging middle power in Southeast Asia.
General Thanh told U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during their meeting today that he was “very happy to witness recently the defense and military cooperation between the two countries.”
Hagel held individual talks with defense ministers ahead of a broader gathering tomorrow of officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus China, Japan and South Korea, at a time a number of countries are vying for access to oil, gas and fish in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
That race for resources, and a broader push for influence in the region, has the bigger powers looking to shore up relationships with smaller countries. Since 2010, when the first ADMM-Plus meeting was held in Hanoi, Vietnam’s role has come to the fore under the U.S.’s strategic shift to Asia and as China expands its reach. For China, one barrier to warmer ties with Vietnam is territorial; for the U.S., it is Vietnam’s human rights record.
“Vietnam is increasingly considered a significant player in the region” given its location, developing economy and young population, said Ralf Emmers, an associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. That puts Vietnam in a delicate spot, he said. “The Vietnamese don’t want to come across as a tacit ally of the U.S. because they want to preserve good relations with China. They don’t want to choose.”