General Dempsey Favors Building Vietnamese Naval Capabilities
By Jim Garamone | DOD News | 18 August 2014
This article originally appeared on the Defense Department website on August 16.
Washington — If the United States lifts the embargo against the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam, U.S. Army General
Martin E. Dempsey would recommend providing materials for the Vietnam People’s Navy, he said during a news conference in
Ho Chi Minh City on August 16.
In the first trip by a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Vietnam since 1971, Dempsey visited Hanoi, Da Nang and
Ho Chi Minh City.
Forty-five years ago, the United States was in a conflict with North Vietnam, and Dempsey was a cadet at West Point
preparing to join that war. “The challenge now is to think 45 years ahead,” the highest-ranking U.S. military official
said.
By 2050, there will be 9 billion people on Earth — 7 billion of whom will live in the Indo-Pacific. “Where the people
are is where the issues are,” the chairman said.
Vietnamese reporters questioned Dempsey on China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. “We’ve been very clear
that we don’t take sides in the territorial disputes, but we do care very much how they are resolved,” he said. “They
should not be resolved through use of force.”
The United States has longstanding defense agreements with nations in the region — Thailand and the Philippines are
treaty allies. “We are interested in becoming a partner with a strong and independent and prosperous Vietnam,” the
chairman said.
Still, at its core the solution to the South China Sea issue hinges more on stronger multinational response brokered
through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations rather than a question of “What does the United States intend to do
about it?” he said.
The United States and Vietnam have common interests. “We’re encouraging many of our ASEAN partners and friends to take a
multinational approach to maritime security and maritime domain awareness,” he said.
Building capabilities for maritime domain awareness is important to any effort in the region, Dempsey said, including
patrol boats, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, and search and rescue equipment.
“Our advice is that we look at this regionally, not country-by-country,” the chairman said. “We’re working our way
forward in that spirit.”
There is a growing sense among U.S. elected officials and nongovernmental organizations that Vietnam has made progress
on the human rights issues that initially led to the embargo being put in place more than three decades ago.
“I think in the near term there will be a discussion on how to lift it,” Dempsey said. “My military advice … will be if
it is lifted that we begin with assets that would make the People’s Navy more capable in the maritime domain. That would
generate a conversation on what that means, but I think the maritime domain is the place of our greatest common security
interest right now.”
This could include intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance assets and even some weapons they don’t yet have for their
fleet, the chairman said.
Vietnam is uniquely and importantly positioned as the 13th largest economy in the world, he said. While it is located in
Southeast Asia, the nation is the springboard into the Indo-Pacific region.
“I do see Vietnam occupying a key geostrategic region,” Dempsey said. “In terms of managing its maritime resources and
managing the territorial disputes — I’d suggest as goes Vietnam, I think as goes the South China Sea.”
ENDS