US Defence Secretary in Vietnam to boost relations
1,493 views · Published 21 October 2018 · 2:09 · Indexed 3 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(16 Oct 2018) US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Tuesday, his second visit this year to the country with which the US fought a 10-year war. He met with the Secretary of the city's communist party, Nguyen Thien Nhan. During his visit, Mattis told reporters the violent history between the two countries is a thing of the past. An example of this is a US-funded 390 (m) million US dollar project to clean up war-era chemical contamination of the ground at an air base near Ho Chi Minh City. Mattis planned to meet with the Vietnamese Defence Minister Ngo Xuan Lich on Wednesday and visit the base at Bien Hoa to see firsthand the area that is to be decontaminated in a 10-year project funded by the US Agency for International Development. Barrels of Agent Orange had been staged at Bien Hoa for US use as a defoliant elsewhere in Vietnam, and when the US decided to stop spraying Agent Orange, the remaining barrels of toxic liquid were collected and stored at Bien Hoa before being flown out of the country. Mattis also plans to attend a regional meeting of defence ministers in Singapore later this week. He said he may meet there with his Chinese counterpart, even though Beijing had recently told Mattis that if he came to China his counterpart would not be available to meet. Mattis' visit was a reminder to China that the US is intent on strengthening partnerships in the region as a counterweight to China's growing military might. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1207b80a5838535ac910b1cf83d2aac2
