US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday began his farewell tour in Vietnam, giving a final push for Washington’s so-called Asia “pivot” before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office next week.
Vietnam has been at the center of outgoing US President Barack Obama’s Asia embrace, marked by the lifting of a wartime-era arms embargo, major growth in trade and the signing of the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact.
Trump, whose tirades against the costs of globalization to US workers helped propel him to office, has vowed to scrap the TPP on his first day in charge.
However, analysts have said ties are unlikely to crumble, despite uncertainty over the incoming leader’s Asia strategy.
Kerry’s visit to Vietnam, his fourth trip to the communist country as the US’ top diplomat, is both political and deeply personal.
The former naval officer won a Silver Star for his service during the Vietnam War after beaching his patrol boat and storming ashore to shoot dead a Viet Cong ambusher in Ca Mau Province in 1969.
Kerry later came to see the war as a mistake and after his return from combat campaigned for peace.
“I’m delighted to be back in Vietnam, where we are developing still a growing relationship,” Kerry said during a meeting yesterday with Acting Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
“There have been a lot of steps forward, but there are still some challenges, as you know,” he said, after a reporter asked him about Vietnam’s patchy human rights record.
The communist country routinely jails dissidents and government critics.
After official meetings in Hanoi, Kerry was later yesterday to fly to Ho Chi Minh City. He was scheduled to head to the Bay Hap River in Ca Mau today to revisit the site of his 1969 ambush.
The relationship between the two countries has transformed since the painful and bloody war era.
The US is Vietnam’s top export market and trade between the pair has tripled in recent years, along with a major boost in US investment in the manufacturing hub.
Obama’s administration made Asia — home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies — a priority as a counterbalance to Chinese power.
“Kerry’s visit underscores the importance of Vietnam in the US-Asia policy,” Netherlands-based Vietnam analyst Jonathan London told reporters.
Trump’s tough talk on rebalancing global trade and vow to scrap the TPP has clouded the future of that policy.
However, “it would be premature to assume that he will totally scrap the interests of US firms that operate in East Asia,” despite Trump’s rhetoric, London added.
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