Serious Armed to the Teeth: US Plans to Turn Vietnam Into Bulwark Against China

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Washington has recently lifted its arms embargo on Vietnam, encouraging Hanoi to add advanced American weapons to its shopping list, raising the question: what is really behind the Obama administration's move?

With the US lethal arms embargo being lifted, Vietnam is likely to jump at the opportunity to stockpile new weapons, Robert Farley, a senior lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, suggests in his article for the Diplomat.


Citing documents obtained by the Defense News media outlet, the academic reveals that the US might soon sell F-16 Viper fighters to the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF).


"But while the F-16s might capture headlines, the far more interesting moves come in the area of maritime ISR. Vietnam appears interested in acquiring American drones, radars, surveillance equipment, and electronic warfare capabilities. Most interesting of all, Vietnam appears to want P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, which would massively increase its surface and anti-submarine warfare capabilities," Farley stresses.

Strange Bedfellows: What’s Behind the US Sale of Weapons to Vietnam

According to the academic the VPAF and Vietnam People's Navy (VPN) cannot yet boast any advanced patrol assets, which make it especially difficult to fill the gap between "see-ers" and "shooters."
While the academic describes with great enthusiasm Vietnam's future acquisitions, the question arises: why Washington has lifted its decades-old lethal arms embargo on Vietnam now and what is really behind the move.


According to China's English-language Global Times, the move is clearly aimed against Beijing.


"Obama claimed that this move is not aimed at China, yet this is only a very poor lie which reveals the truth — exacerbating the strategic antagonism between Washington and Beijing," the media outlet wrote Tuesday, adding that "Vietnam is playing a particularly special role in the US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific strategy."


Is Beijing's stance justified? Likely so.


Farley writes that the US-made weaponry will provide Vietnam with capabilities that it "can use to exert greater control over the South China Sea."
"Not coincidentally, this is precisely the geostrategic outcome the US would like; an ally that can challenge the PLAN [Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy] and the PLAAF [People's Liberation Army Air Force] in what they believe to be their own back yard," the US academic stresses.

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He adds, however, that it is not enough to sell weapons to Hanoi. According to Farley any arms sale requires the deployment of US trainers, advisors, and technicians that would facilitate "the development of a long-term US-Vietnam military relationship."

Undoubtedly the elimination of the US arms embargo will bolster the VPAF and the VPN's capabilities in the South China Sea, Farley insists.


"Combined with existing Vietnamese cruise missile and SAM capabilities, these systems can provide the key link in the kill chain, and potentially a strong deterrent threat against Chinese military activities," he notes.


"And this is precisely the outcome that the Obama administration (and the US defense industrial complex) wanted when it lifted the arms embargo on Vietnam," the US academic stresses.

 

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That means that the US covert hybrid war has entered a new phase, experts note.
It is no secret that Washington is trying to use its allies in the Asia Pacific to pressure Beijing into geopolitical concessions. The South China Sea is the issue of a primary importance used by the Obama administration as an apple of discord to undermine Beijing's positions in the region.


"The US power in the region rests on its ability to prevent China from having positive relations with its neighbors in the region. As usual, human rights and democracy created a pretext for the preconceived US strategy for the region. It's about preventing these countries from making their own decisions," American political analyst Eric Draitser told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear host Brian Becker.


Therefore the US-backed Philippines filed a lawsuit against China in The Hague over the South China Sea dispute, regardless of Beijing's vocal protest.


What adds to the peculiarity of the situation is that Vietnam shares the same ideology and political system with China: it is a Communist state.


However, "when the US has an urgent need to contain China in the South China Sea, the standards of its so-called human rights can be relaxed," Global Times remarks.


It is unclear how Washington is planning to make the Communist Hanoi a US bulwark against China in the region, especially given the US and Vietnam's controversial past.


Anyway, Beijing is not interested in fanning the flames in the region: its primary goal is to launch its New Silk Road project aimed to facilitate economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.

 

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[h=1]Strange Bedfellows: What’s Behind the US Sale of Weapons to Vietnam[/h] © Sputnik/ Sergei Subbotin



Asia & Pacific07:16 21.05.2016(updated 07:18 21.05.2016) Get short URL
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[h=2]Forty years after the US military killed millions of Vietnamese people in a brutal war, the belligerent in that fight, Washington, has lifted a ban on arms sales to Hanoi. Sputnik discussed with political analyst Eric Draitser if President Obama’s visit to Vietnam marks an attempt to come together against China, and if such a union is viable.[/h]

© AFP 2016/ HOANG DINH Nam


Citing Chinese Hostility, US May Overturn Arms Embargo With Vietnam

Talking to Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear host Brian Becker, Draitser said that the US President’s visit to Vietnam, a country still experiencing the consequences of a war on its own soil with the most powerful nation on Earth, including thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance on the ground and generations of citizens poisoned by US defoliation, is an indication of the “power that imperialism has.”
“Despite all that, the US remains a hegemon, an imperial power, a dominant power, wielding influence that we see on display with regard to Vietnam today.”

© REUTERS/ U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters


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Vietnam is seen by the US, according to Draitser, as an interim step to get closer to China. Washington, he asserts, is attempting to prevent the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from collaborating with China. Vietnam is integral to this equation, due to its geography and politics. The country has a long history with China, he said.
According to Draitser, Vietnam today is an “independent country that is walking a line between” Washington and Beijing.

© Flickr/ Loi Nguyen Duc


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“When we look at Vietnam today we should not see it as a US puppet, nor should we see at as a vanguard of Chinese communism in the region,” he said. “While we see Vietnam opening its economy to western investments, western travelers and western tourists, it also has a very strong element that is pro-Chinese, that is pro-Communism. So there are competing ideologies.”

As regards the ongoing South China Sea dispute, Washington is attempting to create a network of non-Chinese states with interests in the region to act as a counterweight to Beijing’s territorial claims.


“The US power in the region rests on its ability to prevent China from having positive relations with its neighbors in the region. As usual, human rights and democracy created a pretext for the preconceived US strategy for the region. It’s about preventing these countries from making their own decisions.”


Washington seeks to prevent in Southeast Asia what occurred in Latin America some fifteen years ago, as the region began to break away from Western political influence.


Draitser suggested that the US today is attempting to influence multilateral blocs, including ASEAN, which historically the US has dominated, to assert Washington-centric policies in the region. But during a recent ASEAN meeting in California, US anti-China rhetoric aimed at delegates did not bear fruit.

 

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[h=1]China Views US Reconnaissance Flights Over S China Sea as Security Threat[/h] © AP Photo/ Charles Dharapak



World14:15 19.05.2016(updated 14:28 19.05.2016) Get short URL
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[h=2]US reconnaissance flights over the South China Sea constitute a threat to China's security, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday.[/h]

© AFP 2016/


China Confirms Intercepting US Reconnaissance Plane Over South China Sea

BEIJING (Sputnik) – According to the Chinese official, China's military shadowed a US reconnaissance plane flying over the South China Sea but kept a safe distance and did not make any dangerous maneuvers.
"US warplanes are constantly conducting reconnaissance flights close to Chinese coastal areas which is a great threat to China's air and marine security…. We demand that the United States stop close reconnaissance flights and prevent repeated incidents," Hong told journalists at a briefing.


Earlier, the Pentagon said two Chinese fighters had intercepted a US reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol in international airspace over the South China Sea on May 17.


The South China Sea has recently seen increased tensions between Washington and Beijing as both try to reaffirm their dominance in the region. US air and naval patrols persistently challenge China's claims over territories disputed with Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan.

 

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[h=1]China Confirms Intercepting US Reconnaissance Plane Over South China Sea[/h] © AFP 2016/



World11:14 19.05.2016(updated 12:12 19.05.2016) Get short URL
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[h=2]Chinese fighter jets shadowed a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea, but kept a safe distance and did not make any dangerous maneuvers, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday.[/h]

© AP Photo/ Lolita C. Baldor


‘Unsafe and Unprofessional’: Chinese Intercept US Jet Over South China Sea

BEIJING (Sputnik) – Earlier the US Pentagon said that on May 17, two Chinese fighters intercepted a US reconnaissance plane over international waters in the South China Sea, and characterized the incident as dangerous.
“According to information we received from the pertinient organs, the US statements are incorrect. On May 17, an American reconnaissance aircraft was flying close to the Chinese island of Hainan and conducting reconnaissance operations. Two Chinese planes shadowed the American plane in line with the law and kept a safe distance from the American plane and did not make any dangerous maneuvers,” Hong said during a briefing.

 

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[h=1]Why US Spy Planes Intensified Flights Near Russian Borders[/h] © Flickr/ Paul Grayson



World17:56 28.05.2016(updated 21:56 29.05.2016) Get short URL
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[h=2]Last week, a US spy plane flying on the eastern border of Russia put themselves directly in the flight paths of two passenger planes, risking catastrophe. This was not the first time a US spy aircraft has approached Russian borders in recent weeks.[/h]The incident took place over neutral waters of the Japan Sea on May 22. According to a source close to the situation, Russia traffic controllers had to change the flight level for two passenger aircraft in the area to avoid a collision.


The spy plane was identified as an RC-135 surveillance aircraft of the US Air Force.

© Flickr/ Lance Cheung


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The dual incidents calls into question the professionalism of US military surveillance, and asks whether the latest provocative exercise by Washington is aimed at baiting Moscow into conflict or simply an act of supreme incompetence.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov acknowledged that American spy planes conduct flights along eastern Russia daily, but "this time, while maneuvering along the international air route, the US spy plane created a real threat of collision for passenger aircraft, which could lead to catastrophic consequences."


However, spokesperson of the US Pacific Command (PACOM) said that there was no danger of a collision.


Military aircraft often fly in the flight paths of civil aircraft, Russian test pilot Magomed Tolboyev told the Russian newspaper Vzglyad.
"But this is strictly prohibited. This is prohibited by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)," he said.


"The purpose of such flights is to monitor the radio-radar situation in the area, to detect the coordinates of Russian missile defense, as well as to assess the deployment of troops in the areas," military expert Alexander Drobyshevskiy told Zvezda TV channel.

© Flickr/ Lance Cheung


Russian Military Protests 'Dangerous Actions' by US Spy Plane Over Sea of Japan

Russian pilots are much more disciplined on the issue. They rarely conduct reconnaissance flights, Tolboyev said."But as for American pilots, they break the rules across the world," he added.


Over the last month, US spy planes have approached Russian borders over the nine times, including over the Baltic Sea, in the Murmansk Region and in the Far East.


The interests of the US aerial surveillance are now focused not only on Russia’s Far East and the Baltic Sea. American spy planes have also been detected over the Black Sea and over northern regions.


"In the 1990s, the US didn’t conduct reconnaissance flights over Russia because at the time the Russian military was weak. Now, they are concerned with the resurgence of Russia’s military power. This is why the Pentagon has intensified aerial intelligence," expert Vladislav Shurygin was quoted as saying by Zvezda.


Another problem is whether the US plane was authorized to fly with transponders off.


In accordance with ICAO rules, transponders must be installed on each civil aircraft. In March 2015, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that military aircraft of the alliance were also equipped with transponders. If it is true then the US spy plane seems to have violated the NATO norms.

© Flickr/ Alan Wilson\


What Again? US Spy Plane Approaches Russian Border in the Baltic Sea

However, Commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said that actually neither Russian nor NATO military planes use transponders.Last year, Finland made an attempt to settle the issue, having addressed to the ICAO. According to Bloomberg, the press-office responded that the rules of civil aviation do not apply for military aircraft.


Moreover, no international convention directly bans flying with transponders off.


Russian military and political analyst Alexander Perendzhiev assumed that the incidents over the Japan Sea were deliberate provocations ahead of the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw.


"Americans want to find a pretext for new accusations against Russia. They want to present them at the summit," he suggested.