US naval presence at Cam Ranh bay Vietnam - Strategic under currents

[Virendra]

Free from its entanglements at Iraq, Afghanistan, the Americans have now decided to double back on South East Asia as the next long term game.
The strategic underbelly of China that had given up to Chinese hegemony and monopoly in the last two decades, has just started to churn with friction.
Reason is that on one hand the big and small states in South East Asia have realized that now there are alternatives coming up to hedge against China.
Fuelling it on the other hand, is the belated US recognition of South East Asia as the new pivot of the upcoming cold war of 21st century.
States like Vietnam with alarming threat perception from China are in the frontline of this churning.
Becoming of a Karmic cycle from history - Vietnam is now poised to bolster its Cam Ranh Bay naval base by Russian help and has even used the bay in naval exercises with US this year.
Latest is the increased and regular US naval presence at this strategically located bay near south Vietnam coast. It is equipped with a functioning international airport.
The USNS Alan Shepard (T-AKE4) logistic ship of the Pacific Fleet, U.S. Navy recently docked at the bay for repairs. This is the sixth such docking of US naval assets at this bay in the past two years.
After Ho Chi Minh City port in south and Haiphong port up north, this is the third Vietnam naval point opening up to foriegn (read US) naval calls.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More reading at - US naval ship docks at Cam Ranh Bay | VOV Online Newspaper
and - Russia Seeks Naval Bases in Cold War Allies Cuba, Vietnam - Businessweek
Excerpts :

"We are working on establishing navy bases outside Russia," Vice-Admiral Viktor Chirkov, the navy's commander-in- chief since May, said in an interview with the state-run RIA Novosti news service and confirmed by the navy. "We aim to set up resupply bases in Cuba, the Seychelles and Vietnam."
....
....
Vietnam's President Truong Tan Sang said in an interview broadcast by Voice of Russia radio that his country is ready to let Russia set up a servicing facility in Cam Ranh Bay, a former Soviet naval base, though Vietnam will not lease its territory to any country.

In June, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited the one-time hub of American military activity seeking greater naval access to the port as the U.S. rebalances its forces toward the Asia-Pacific region.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regards,
Virendra

 

[winton]

Re: US naval presence at Cam Ranh bay Vietnam - Strategic under curren

everyone gets to dock at cam ranh, so its nothing new. Every navy has a presence there.