Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

On October 24th, the New York Times Editorial Board opined about strengthening diplomatic ties between the United States and Vietnam.  " It is in America’s interests to engage Vietnam whenever it can," the Board writes.

Read more here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/opinion/a-deepening-partnership-with-vietnam.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0


Note that Marc Valencia, one of our panelists at the Dangerous Waters Forum on September 23rd, has a slightly different view of the "U.S. pivot" towards Vietnam.  The rebalancing of U.S. diplomatic relations in the entire ASEAN region, he says, has contributed to instability in the area.  Read his article here.

The Guardian reports that Nguyen Van Hai, known online as Dieu Cay, was freed from prison after being jailed in 2012 for ‘anti-state propaganda.'  He was deported to the U.S., and arrived in LAX on Wednesday, October 22nd.

Supporters claim he was jailed for writing critically about China's influence over Vietnam in his blog.

Full story : http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/22/vietnam-blogger-jailed-for-posts-about-china-deported-us

Representatives from the Vietnamese and Chinese armies recently met, reports Carl Thayer and the Vietnam People’s Army Online newspaper, Quan Doi Nhan Dan.  The generals discussed "hot lines," or direct technical communication links, between the two countries' defense ministries, among other things.  Mr. Thayer analyses the importance of these "hot links" in helping to diffuse potential future diplomatic crises in an article in The Diplomat.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/why-the-upcoming-china-vietnam-defense-ministers-meeting-is-immensely-important/

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Carl Thayer reports in the Diplomat that bilateral communication between China and Vietnam seems to be improving.  The suggestion--common in the summer of this year--that the diplomatic crisis in the South China Sea might lead to military conflict was a "premature...assessment."

Full post and Thayer's predictions for the future are here: http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/china-vietnam-defense-hotline-agreed-what-next/

Several of the experts who participated in the Dangerous Waters Forum at U.C. Berkeley on September 23rd, 2014 agreed with Mr. Thayer that military conflict appears unlikely.  Professor Tuong Vu and Mark Valencia both specifically voiced doubt that the two nations face the prospect of violent confrontation in the immediate future.

On October 17th, Reuters reported that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung spoke about cooperation between the two countries moving forward.  They were quoted while attending the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Milan.

Full story : http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/us-southchinaseachina-vietnam-idUSKCN0I609N20141017?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews