US aircraft carrier’s Vietnam port call ‘positive expression’ of commitment to peace in South China Sea

The port call marks the third visit of a US aircraft carrier to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam war, amid rising tensions in the South China Sea

The visit, a ‘new normal’ given improved bilateral ties, is also proof of Vietnam’s ‘bamboo policy’ of balancing the interests of competing powers, analysts say

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The USS Ronald Reagan, a US Navy Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, pulls into port in Da Nang on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00pm, 25 Jun 2023Updated: 8:57pm, 25 Jun 2023

An American aircraft carrier made a port call in Vietnam on Sunday amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, in what analysts said was a “positive expression” of the United States’ commitment to peacekeeping in the disputed waters.

The USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, docked in Da Nang for a six-day visit, with cultural activities such as a US Navy band concert and a culinary exchange on the itinerary.

Analysts told This Week in Asia that geopolitics factored heavily in both countries’ motivations.

The USS Ronald Reagan is making a six-day port call in Da Nang, Vietnam. Photo: AFP

“The two countries have had a common view to jointly maintain peace in the East Sea, so the visit of the US aircraft carrier is a positive expression of the US commitment to peacekeeping in the East Sea,” said Le Dang Doanh, a retired senior economic adviser to five prime ministers, using the Vietnamese term for the South China Sea.

Sunday’s port call marks the third visit of a US aircraft carrier to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam war, with the first ship arriving in March 2018 and the second in March 2020. A trip planned for last year was abruptly cancelled without official explanation.

In a statement on Sunday, the commander of the carrier strike group Rear Admiral Patrick Hannifin “visits like this reinforce our partnership and commitment to confronting shared challenges in the maritime domain.” The aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam accompanied by two escort ships, the guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Robert Smalls.

Retired Major General Le Van Cuong, former director of the Strategic Studies Institute at the Ministry of Public Security, told This Week in Asia that relations between Vietnam and the US had advanced to the point where such port calls were the new normal.