Closer US, Vietnam ties urged

US continues strategic SE Asia engagements.

McCain Pushing for More U.S. Naval Engagement with Vietnam

By: Sam LaGrone

The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee is pushing for more interaction between the U.S. and Vietnamese navies, according to a copy of a May 20 letter to Vietnamese Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong obtained by USNI News.

In the letter, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Trong he was “committed to helping build the maritime capacity of the Vietnamese Coast Guard and Navy” and pushed to expand the sharing of maritime domain information with all South China Sea nations as part of the Maritime Security Initiative, unveiled by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter last month and pushed by McCain.

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Source: news.usni.org