US national security adviser Robert O’Brien flew to Vietnam and the Philippines on Thursday for a six-day trip, along with a business delegation. He is expected to conduct high-level meetings from Friday to Sunday in Vietnam and spend the remainder of the trip in the Philippines to advance economic growth, discuss bilateral relations, regional security cooperation, and international matters of mutual importance, Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswomen Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press meet.
The White House National Security Council said in a tweet that the meeting was in relation “to reaffirm the strength of our bilateral relationships”. It further added that “he will stop in Alaska to promote America’s arctic security efforts” and at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii “at Joint Base Hickam to highlight their service protecting Americans at home”.
O’Brien, who is the fourth incumbent of the national security adviser position during the presidency of Donald Trump, made remarks about visiting the region at last week’s virtual ASEAN – US Summit and praised Vietnam’s role as the chair of ASEAN and efficiently in coordinating regional issues against the backdrop of the raging coronavirus pandemic. The visit also comes a few weeks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, visited Vietnam a week following the release of Michael Nguyen, a Vietnam born US citizen, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “attempting to overthrow the state”.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the two nations normalizing diplomatic ties that were established 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War, in 1995. In spite of US’ concerns about Vietnam’s human rights issues, their diplomatic relationship has been warm since and the two countries have bonded over their mutual concern about China’s aggressive actions in the region. Their economic relations have also flourished with trade increasing from $450 million in 1994 to $77 billion last year. Parallelly, the US’ relationship with the Philippines has been mostly cordial as well as the Philippines is known to usually take a pro-China and Russia position while criticizing US policy, but in September, President Rodrigo Duterte took a strong stance against China’s growing presence in the South China Sea, which is disputed by several maritime nations.
US-China relations have become more frayed under the Trump presidency. The two powers have been locked in a trade war for a few years now and this visit seems like a last effort by the Trump administration to counter Beijing’s regional ambitions.