The visit of the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan is only the third by a US aircraft carrier since the end of the Vietnam War and follows the arrival of Indian naval ships in Danang last month, as well as a port call by Japan’s largest warship in Cam Ranh, a city on the southeastern coast, earlier this week.

“The visit gives that message that Vietnam is continuing to balance against China by improving its security relationship with the US, and with other outside powers,” Nguyen The Phuong, a PhD candidate in maritime security at the University of New South Wales Canberra, told the AFP news agency.

It has also ignored a 2016 international court ruling that the nine-dash line had “ no legal basis“.īesides Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the sea. The port call comes as the US and Vietnam look to deepen ties, 10 years after signing their “comprehensive partnership”, amid shared trade ties and concerns about China’s growing strength in the region.Ī Chinese survey vessel, multiple coast guard ships and fishing boats operated for several weeks in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, prompting Vietnam’s foreign ministry to demand that they leave.Ĭhina claims almost all the South China Sea under its so-called nine-dash line, deploying ships and building artificial islands and military facilities on reefs and outcrops. The United States’ aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan has arrived in Danang in central Vietnam, weeks after Hanoi protested about Chinese vessels sailing in its waters.

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