Скачать или смотреть China Says U.S. Aircraft Carrier's Vietnam Visit Was a 'Waste of Money'

US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson has been in Vietnamese waters off the port city of Da Nang since Monday, marking the first port call by a US carrier to the Southeast Asian nation since the Vietnam War.

Da Nang was a major US staging area during the war.

Also in the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier’s strike group are two escort ships, cruiser USS Lake Champlain and destroyer USS Wayne E Meyer.

Top leaders from the United States and Vietnam discussed the possibility of an aircraft-carrier visit last year as part of an effort to further defense relations, the US Third Fleet’s command and control said in a statement.

Hanoi and Washington have been careful not to link the symbolic visit, part of a scheduled deployment in the Indo-Pacific region, to Beijing’s adamant claims of sovereignty over islets and atolls in the South China Sea, but ironically it is disapproving Chinese media that have been tracking the slew of exchanges taking place throughout the carrier’s five-day visit.