By Pierre Tran
Paris – The armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, is due to make an official visit to Vietnam to attend French and Vietnamese commemoration on May 6 and 7 of the bloody battle of Dien Bien Phu, which marked the defeat of French colonialism in the southeast Asian nation.
The memorial events mark the 70th anniversary of that military siege, and the ministerial visit to Hanoi points up the importance Paris sets on developing close ties in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, ministry officials said.
A letter of intent is due to be signed, setting out a structure for defense cooperation between the two nations, a ministry official said.
Vietnam is seen as looking to strengthen ties with France, and although military cooperation is at a modest level, there is a perception there is a good base to work on.
The pursuit of closer links with Paris include Vietnamese interest in renewing its stock of arms, which depend largely on Russia.
There will be three major events this year for armaments, namely the Eurosatory trade show for land weapons in June, the Euronaval show in November, with the first two in France, and the Vietnam International Defense show in Hanoi in December, and there is also Forum for Franco-Vietnamese defense industry in November, also in the Vietnamese capital.
France will listen closely to what Vietnam seeks, an official said.
There are French navy ships making calls at Vietnamese ports, and there is a shared view of the importance of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. The latter is in the face of Chinese claims of sovereignty over disputed waters close to Vietnam.
There has also been French cooperation in providing humanitarian aid in natural disasters in the Indo-Pacific region.
Foreign Interest in Vietnam
That western interest in strengthening ties with the southeast Asian nation could be seen in the visit by president Joe Biden last September to Hanoi, with the U.S. head of state signing agreements with Vietnam on semiconductors and minerals in a bid to cut America’s dependence on China.
The Vietnamese foreign minister, Bui Thanh Son, visited U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken in Washington in March, and the two senior diplomats discussed expanding cooperation on semiconductors and widening the supply chain, Reuters reported.
That military interest in Vietnam extends to Moscow.
The Reuters news agency reported Sept. 10 it had seen documents setting out talks between Vietnam and Russia, with Moscow offering an $8 billion credit facility to allow Hanoi to order anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine aircraft and helicopters, and anti-aircraft systems and fighter jets.
France supplies those types of weapons, and recently upgraded its anti-submarine aircraft. There is also a French project for a new generation anti-submarine aircraft.
Meanwhile, China also has reached out to Vietnam, with the Chinese defense minister, Dong Jun, telling his Vietnamese counterpart that Beijing was ready to raise the “strategic mutual trust” between the two militaries to a new level, the British news agency reported April 12.
There should be higher cooperation at sea, the Chinese minister told Vietnamese defense minister Phan Van Giang.
In that geopolitical arena, Lecornu is due to meet on the morning of May 6 the Vietnamese prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, the defense minister, and the president of the foreign relations committee of the Vietnamese Communist party, Le Hoai Trung.
In the afternoon, the French minister is due to fly to Dien Bien Phu, in the remote hills in northwest Vietnam, for memorial visits of key sites of the battle.
Thousands of Vietnamese troops fell in the assault before the French army surrendered on May 7, 1954. Vo Nguyen Giap, a former history teacher, led the siege, which included the unforeseen deployment and use of artillery in hills looking down on the French base.
That eight week siege by the Vietnamese forces saw the loss of 3,000 French and African soldiers, 4,000 wounded, and some 20,000 prisoners of war.
That Vietnamese defeat of a western power was later seen as a precursor to the struggle with the U.S., which led to the victory of North Vietnam over the then Saigon government in 1975.
Commemoration Of A Battle
The French minister is due to visit an exhibition of the French veterans association, Office National des Combattants et des Victimes de Guerre on the site of the battle.
Lecornu is also expected to visit the command post of brigadier general Christian de Castres, who led the paratroopers, foreign legionnaires, and other French-led forces at the camp.
A French commemoration ceremony is planned in the evening, with veterans due to attend.
Lecornu is due to attend in the morning of May 7 the Vietnamese national ceremony marking the victory. That will be the first time a French defense minister has been invited to the military parade.
A rehearsal of the 12,000-strong parade was held on May 3 in the stadium of Dien Bien Phu, Le Courrier du Vietnam magazine reported.
Public interest in past Vietnam conflicts appears strong, with a television adaptation of a novel, The Sympathizer, by Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen. That is a thriller tale with dark humor of a Vietnamese double agent, in the wake of the U.S. war with Vietnam.
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