MGR Online — A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier entered Vietnamese waters today (30th) to dock at the city of Da Nang, a move analysts say demonstrates the strength of relations between the United States and Vietnam despite trade tensions and global turbulence.
The USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier assigned to the US Navy's 7th Fleet, departed Yokosuka, Japan, and berthed at Da Nang port in the country's central region from Thursday through Monday, accompanied by a strike group that also includes the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG-62) and the guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup (DDG-86).
"The arrival of this ship indicates that US-Vietnam cooperation has not been disrupted by the war in Iran and other US military redeployments to the Middle East," said Carl Thayer, a political scientist and emeritus professor of political science at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
It also demonstrates that defence cooperation between the two countries remains steadfast despite issues surrounding Trump tariffs and other matters, Thayer noted.
The port call comes as Vietnam and the United States approach the third anniversary of the signing of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2023, which represents Hanoi's highest level of diplomatic relations.
The USS George Washington is the fourth US aircraft carrier to visit Vietnam since the two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1995. Previous US carrier visits include the USS Carl Vinson in 2018, the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2020, and the USS Ronald Reagan in 2023.
Bui The Sang, a former Vietnamese ambassador to the United Nations, said the carrier visit was routine business reflecting a growing bilateral relationship.
"From Vietnam's perspective, this visit is nothing sensitive — it is simply a routine port call in the context of an elevated bilateral relationship," Bui The Sang said.
The visit also includes community engagement activities such as performances by the US Navy band, a friendly volleyball tournament, and social exchanges between personnel from the two countries' navies, as part of both governments' efforts to frame the relationship as extending beyond security cooperation, analysts noted.
For Nguyen Duc Sang, 79, the arrival of the aircraft carrier stirred deeply personal emotions. He was captured as a prisoner of war during the Tet Offensive in 1968 and held for four years in a prisoner-of-war camp operated by the US-backed South Vietnamese government. The former communist fighter said the arrival of the American warship showed how far the relationship had come.
"I welcome the invitation for the US aircraft carrier to visit," Nguyen Duc Sang said, adding that the move reflected a policy of setting the past aside and looking toward the future.
The visit also reinforces the US Navy's continued presence in the South China Sea and the broader region.
Carl Thayer said the port call is consistent with the United States' concept of freedom of navigation conducted under international law, and is designed to reassure allies, security partners, and coastal states such as Vietnam that the South China Sea will remain stable and safe.
Prior to its stop in Vietnam, the USS George Washington participated in this year's Exercise Valiant Shield together with the navies of Japan, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
These joint exercises are intended to deter attempts to alter the status quo, Thayer said, while also cautioning against overestimating the impact of this carrier visit, saying the move would not significantly affect what he termed grey-zone operations and aggressive behaviour against the Philippines in China's seas.
Thayer expects China to monitor the visit closely, but said Beijing is unlikely to openly criticise Vietnam for hosting the US aircraft carrier, and that China's response would take a more general approach — through routine military signalling such as shadowing the carrier strike group with its own ships and aircraft — as opposed to sharp criticism and aggressive maritime actions against the Philippines, which indicates that China is cautious about Vietnam because it does not want to push Vietnam into the arms of the United States.
Vietnam has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that warmer relations with Washington amount to taking sides against Beijing, with Vietnam's defence policy resting on what are known as the Four No's: no military alliances, no siding with one country against another, no foreign military bases on Vietnamese soil, and no use of or threat to use force in international relations.
Thayer said this policy, and Vietnam's strategy of diversifying risks and building multilateral partnerships by expanding its comprehensive strategic partnerships, is clearly designed to preserve the country's strategic independence.
Nevertheless, despite the expansion of defence cooperation, Vietnam's military relationship with the United States remains far from the level of an alliance.
Vietnam purchases relatively little military equipment from the United States, a decision driven by considerations of cost and compatibility as much as by political reasons.
"American weapons are very expensive, and US aircraft carriers cost billions of dollars," Bui The Sang said, pointing to the incompatibility between Vietnam's existing Soviet-era military hardware and American equipment.
Meanwhile, Vietnam and China have maintained negotiating channels to manage various disputes despite their conflicts in the South China Sea, with both countries having developed their own maritime dispute-management mechanisms, and Vietnam has consistently maintained that the South China Sea should be governed by international law rather than unilateral claims.
Analysts said this aircraft carrier visit illustrates the balance Vietnam has long sought to strike — deepening cooperation with the United States without provoking China, while affirming that closer ties with one major power need not come at the expense of the other.
