Biden visits Hanoi 50 years after Vietnam War

US seeks improved commercial ties with Communist nation to balance against China.

President Joe Biden met with Vietnam Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi to elevate US-Vietnam diplomatic relations and secure deals on trade in semiconductors and critical minerals.

The visit reflects the emerging economic alignment in Asia as US government officials and business leaders see Vietnam as a new manufacturing hub for companies moving operations out of China.

“Today, we can trace a 50-year arc of progress in the relationship between our nations from conflict to normalization,” President Biden said at a press conference with Western media in Hanoi on Sunday.

Biden arrived to a ceremony that included school children waving American flags and honor guards carrying bayoneted rifles, Reuters reported. Elevating US ties with Vietnam helps to set ‘friend-shoring’ conditions for shifting production away China.

Executives from internet giant Google Inc, chip makers Intel Corp, Amkor Technology, Marvell Technology, Global Foundries were joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken for meetings with Vietnamese tech executives, Reuters said.

The Biden administration has $100 million in annual subsidies under the recently enacted CHIPS Act to support semiconductor supply chains globally. A large part of it could go to Vietnam over the next five years, officials told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines was expected to sign an agreement to buy about 50 Boeing 737 Max jets in a deal valued at $10 billion, timed to the trip.

The Vietnam War, largely a Cold War proxy fight between the US and China/Russia, ended in 1975 with the fall of the US-backed government in Saigon. More than 58,000 US troops were killed. Approximately 1.5 million civilians and combatants in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are believed to have died in the violence.

The US and Vietnam agreed to normalize trade relations in year 2000. US efforts to expand commercial and diplomatic ties is still very much about countering China.

Trong said the US-Vietnam partnership had "progressed by leaps and bounds" and now "has been elevated to a new level."

G20 summit New Delhi

Biden’s visit to Hanoi followed two days of meetings in New Delhi, India, with leaders of the G20 group of nations — meetings that promoted multilateral aid for developing nations but failed to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Biden described his trip to India and Vietnam as “an opportunity to strengthen alliances around the world to maintain stability.”

“That’s what this trip was all about: having India cooperate much more with the United States, be closer with the United States, Vietnam being closer with the United States. It’s not about containing China; it’s about having a stable base — a stable base in the Indo-Pacific,” the president said.

Biden cited a recent trilateral summit he held with leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David, Maryland, and recent alliance-building measures to counter China the US has taken with Pacific Islands nations, the Philippines, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The US has quietly asked India to say how it would respond in the event of a war between China and the US and its allies over Taiwan, Bloomberg has reported. Six weeks ago, India’s top military general commissioned a formal study to evaluate war scenarios and India’s options, two senior Indian officials told Bloomberg.

“All the effort we’ve advanced from day one of my administration to demonstrate to our Indo-Pacific partners and to the world that the United States is a Pacific nation, and we’re not going anywhere,” Biden. said.

Biden said China’s current economic “crisis” makes it less likely China would invade Taiwan. “As a matter of fact, the opposite, probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before,” he said.

Ukraine war discussed

G20 leaders in New Delhi did not specifically condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leaving any mention of Moscow’s role as aggressor out of a 35-page joint communique. It did call for a “full, timely and effective implementation” of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and a “just and durable peace in Ukraine.”

“We’ve discussed Russia’s brutal and illegal war in Ukraine. And there was sufficient agreement in the room on the need for a just — for a just and lasting peace that upholds the principles of the UN Charter and respects sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Biden told reporters in Hanoi.

China President Xi Jinping and Russia President Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 summit in New Delhi. China Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No 2 leader, and Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attended instead.

Biden said in Hanoi he had met with Premier Li in New Delhi. “We talked about stability,” Biden said. “It wasn’t confrontational at all.”

Today, Biden is expected to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks during a stopover in Alaska.

VP in Jakarta for ASEAN

Vice President Kamala Harris was also in the region ahead of the G20 meeting, representing the United States at an ASEAN summit in Jakarta where she held a trilateral meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Japan Prime Minister Kishida of Japan.

“They discussed the maritime security environment in the South China Sea and East China Sea and reviewed ways in which their three countries could enhance trilateral maritime cooperation, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts,” a White House readout said.

China recruits US veterans

China’s military is conducting a campaign designed to “fill gaps” in its capabilities by targeting current and former US service members and harvesting specialized knowledge, a top US general warned in a message obtained by The Washington Post.

Air Force General Charles Q Brown Jr, who is President Biden’s nominee to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns that foreign companies doing business with the Chinese government are “targeting and recruiting US and NATO-trained military talent across specialties and career fields.”

Officials who spoke to the Post characterized Beijing’s campaign as an aggressive effort to leverage international firms that hire Americans to teach advanced military skills and tactics, according to the Post.

“By essentially training the trainer, many of those who accept contracts with these foreign companies are eroding our national security, putting the very safety of their fellow servicemembers and the country at risk,” Brown wrote, appealing to the recipients’ sense of responsibility, even after leaving the armed forces, to protect “our national defense information.”

China, North Korea cyber threats

Microsoft warns in a new report that Chinese state-affiliated cyber groups are particularly focused on the South China Sea region, directing cyber espionage at governments and other critical entities in the area.

China’s hackers are targeting the US defense sector and probing of US infrastructure, signaling interest in gaining advantages for China’s geopolitical and strategic military ambitions.

Meanwhile China’s online influence campaigns have gotten more effective. Since 2022, Chinese social networks are engaging directly with authentic users, targeting specific candidates in US elections, and posing as American voters, Microsoft said.

Canada last week opened a public inquiry into alleged Chinese interference in its elections in 2019 and 2021 following intelligence findings that China worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.

North Korea continues to pursue intelligence collection and has developed increasing tactical sophistication through cascading supply chain attacks and cryptocurrency theft, Microsoft said.

— William Roberts