The U.S. has
begun a cleanup operation in some parts of Vietnam in order to “be able to
monitor what the Russians do” in those areas, said Ward Reilly, a member of
Veterans for Peace.
“That’s the
ulterior motive in this case”, Reilly said, noting that this comes exactly after
Vietnam announced normalizing ties with Russian and allowing it to build some
military bases for the Asian country.
Reilly made the
remarks in an interview with the U.S. desk on Thursday.
He went on to
say that if the U.S. concern is cleaning up that area, why would its ambassador
to Vietnam say “the U.S. says protecting peace and freedom of navigation in the
sea is in its national interest.”
The Vietnamese
prime minister has recently said Cam Ranh Bay, 180 miles northwest of Ho Chi
Minh city, would stand ready to service ships and submarines "from all
countries". Russia is to help rebuild the port as part of an £1.3 billion
defense deal signed earlier this year.
The move is one
of a series of interlocking regional arrangements that are being put in place to
counter China's growing might.
This is while,
on Thursday, the U.S. and Vietnam began a long-awaited joint cleanup effort
dubbed as the “Agent Orange”.
AT/ARA