The US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan does not go unnoticed. When fully operational it can carry up to 6,000 people, including 3,200 sailors and 2,480 pilots, can board up to 90 aircraft and has enough supplies to stay at sea for three months including 30,000 lighting systems, 1,400 telephones and 2100 km of cables. It is impossible not to notice it. Especially in Vietnam.
The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered behemoth arrived in Da Nang on June 25 and will stay there for five days using a port that was modernized and expanded by the United States during the Vietnam War. Speaking of history, this is the third docking of a US aircraft carrier since the end of the conflict.
The landing of the USS Ronald Reagan came about a month after a Chinese naval training ship called in Da Nang as part of what it called a “goodwill tour” which it also undertook to Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines, while the largest Japanese destroyer, the Izumo, was on board. She was called up to Vietnam last week after training exercises in the South China Sea with Reagan.
“Vietnam has recently received visits from military ships from several countries and this is the time to use Ronald Reagan,” said Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Pham Thu Hang. “This is a normal friendly exchange for peace, stability, cooperation and development both in Hanoi and in the world.”
Reagan is the ninth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier of the US Navy, named after Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of US Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II. The ship was named after the former US president in 2001, when he was still alive.
The contract to build the ship was awarded in December 1994 to Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and work commenced on 12 February 1998 with a keel laid. The launch took place on March 4, 2001, with a christening ceremony entrusted to Nancy Reagan, wife of the former head of the White House. The crew was transferred in October 2002 and the ship officially entered service with the US Navy on 12 July 2003 at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner, but tensions between the two countries have escalated recently due to maritime and territorial disputes in the South China Sea. However, Washington sees Hanoi as a key component of its strategy for the region, and has sought to take advantage of the historic rivalry between Vietnam and China to expand US influence in the Southeast Asian country.
Last April, during a visit to Vietnam, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the opening of a new, one-billion-euro US embassy in Hanoi, a project the Joe Biden administration says will demonstrate the US commitment to further improving diplomatic relations after diplomatic relations are restored. Relationships in 1995.
“Prone to fits of apathy. Introvert. Award-winning internet evangelist. Extreme beer expert.”
