HANOI, Vietnam \u2014 A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is expected to make a port visit to Vietnam in March, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday. It would be the first such visit in the postwar era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The planned visit to Danang is likely to irritate China, which is critical of U.S. moves to add to its military muscle in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mattis and his counterpart, Ngo Xuan Lich, discussed the planned carrier visit during a closed-door meeting, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said. Davis said the Vietnamese are awaiting final approval by more senior government authorities, but Mattis appeared to indicate it was a done deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you for the increasing partnership with our aircraft carrier coming in to Danang here in March,\u201d Mattis said in remarks opening a meeting with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mattis also thanked him for Vietnam\u2019s support for toughening United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vietnamese Defense Ministry said separately that the two defense ministries had submitted their proposals for a U.S. carrier port visit to their leaders. The idea was floated last summer when Lich met Mattis at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two met again in Hanoi on Thursday during Mattis\u2019 first trip to the Southeast Asian nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe recognize that relationships never stay the same. They either get stronger or they get weaker, and America wants a stronger relationship with a stronger Vietnam,\u201d Mattis told Lich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a written statement after Mattis\u2019s meeting with Lich, the Vietnamese Defense Ministry said Lich had given Mattis \u201cwar artifacts of U.S. military personnel in the war.\u201d It did not elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The visit also included a meeting with President Tran Dai Quang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom postwar legacy issues to what Minister Lich called the positive trajectory of our military-to-military relations, I\u2019m confident we\u2019re on the right trajectory, sir,\u201d Mattis said in his opening remarks at the presidential palace, where he and the president sat side-by-side beneath a large bust of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier Thursday, Mattis broke from his usual pattern of official business meetings to pay his respects at one of Vietnam\u2019s oldest pagodas, where he spoke at length with a senior monk and remarked on the serene setting. The Tran Quoc Buddhist pagoda stands on a small island at the edge of a lake in Hanoi, a short distance from a concrete marker noting where Sen. John McCain was shot down during a Navy attack mission over the city in 1967. McCain was retrieved from the lake and imprisoned at the infamous \u201cHanoi Hilton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he strolled among tourists at the 6th century pagoda, Mattis said to the monk, \u201cBeautiful. Peaceful. It makes you think more deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mattis joined the Marine Corps Reserves in 1969, while the decade-long Vietnam War was ongoing, but did not serve in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His visit happened to come just days before the Vietnamese celebrate Tet, the Lunar New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next week will mark the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, in January 1968, when the Communist North launched synchronized, simultaneous attacks on multiple targets in U.S.-backed South Vietnam, including the city of Hue. The offensive was a military failure, but it turned out to be a pivotal point in the war by puncturing U.S. hopes of a swift victory. The war dragged on for another seven years before the U.S. completed its withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mattis noted earlier this week that Vietnam\u2019s proximity to the South China Sea makes the country a key player in disputes with China over territorial claims to islets, shoals and other small land formations in the sea. Vietnam also fought a border war with China in 1979.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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