CHINA/FOREIGN POLICY/JAMES MATTIS/NAVY/VIETNAM: “In a move likely to irritate China, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier will probably visit Vietnam in March for the first time since the war, U.S. and Vietnamese officials said Thursday [1-25-18].
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Vietnamese counterpart discussed a plan for a carrier visit to Da Nang in March, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said.
He said the Vietnamese are awaiting final approval by more senior government authorities and that the U.S. expects the approval to be granted.
The Vietnamese Defense Ministry said separately that the two defense departments submitted their proposals for a port visit to their leaders. The idea was floated last summer when Vietnamese Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich met Mr. Mattis at the Pentagon.
The two met again in Hanoi on Thursday during Mr. Mattis’s first trip to the Southeast Asian nation, which also included a meeting with President Tran Dai Quang…
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Mattis broke from his usual pattern of official business meetings to pay his respects at one of Vietnam’s 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 John McCain was shot down during a Navy attack mission over the city in 1967. Mr. McCain, now a senator, was retrieved from the lake and imprisoned.”
-Associated Press, “U.S. Aircraft Carrier Expected to Visit Vietnam for First Time Since War,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 25, 2018 7:10am