The United States wants deeper military ties with Vietnam, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday at the start of a visit to Hanoi amid prolonged talks for the potential supply of military equipment to Washington's former foe.

Hegseth was expected to meet Vietnam's Communist Party chief To Lam, President Luong Cuong, and Defense Minister Phan Van Giang, a Vietnamese official briefed on the visit said.

"Deeper (military) cooperation will benefit both of our countries," Hegseth, who arrived in the Vietnamese capital after meetings in Malaysia with Asian counterparts, said prior to meeting with Giang.

The United States had already delivered three cutters to the Vietnamese coastguard and three T-6 trainer aircraft, from an order of 12, and intended to do more, he added.

Vietnam’s response

In a statement, Vietnam's Defense Ministry said both governments agreed to continue promoting security cooperation, including areas such as the defense industry.

Talks on US arms supplies are expected to dominate the agenda, according to the official and another Vietnamese source briefed on the matter.

Both mentioned Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military transport planes among the items to be discussed. A US official also confirmed C-130s would come up in the talks.

One of the Vietnamese sources said the supply of US helicopters could also be discussed, specifically Lockheed Martin S-92s and Boeing Chinooks.

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Wider context

The Southeast Asian nation has been looking to diversify its arsenal for years. Talks with the United States, which lifted an arms embargo in 2016, gained momentum during the Biden administration but have not yet yielded any formal announcement.

Reuters reported last year on discussions for the sale of C-130 planes to Vietnam's Defense Ministry, and on a preliminary deal in July on two S-92 helicopters after years of talks on the matter with its public security forces.

The possible purchase of two or three Chinook helicopters by Vietnam's police was also under discussion, said one of the sources.

In December, a newspaper controlled by the police said a new airport under development near Hanoi would be suitable for Chinook CH-47D helicopters and other models. The Chinook was the only aircraft mentioned in the report that is not being used by Vietnamese forces.

US-Vietnam relations: From war to leverage

US-Vietnam relations have undergone a striking transformation, evolving from bitter enmity during the Vietnam War to a complex and pragmatic partnership grounded in shared strategic and economic interests.

The shift is particularly remarkable given the scale of devastation that the United States inflicted on Vietnam between 1965 and 1973, a war that left millions dead, vast areas defoliated by Agent Orange, and deep psychological scars on the Indo-Pacific nation.

Following the war’s end in 1975 and the fall of Saigon, diplomatic relations were frozen for two decades, during which Vietnam faced economic isolation and US-imposed sanctions.

Relations normalized

The end of the Cold War, Vietnam’s 1986 Đổi Mới (Renovation) economic reforms, and the resolution of the POW/MIA issue opened the door to normalization. In 1995, under President Bill Clinton, the United States and Vietnam officially established diplomatic relations, a watershed moment that symbolized reconciliation and the start of a new chapter.

Washington has since become one of Hanoi’s largest trading partners, while Vietnam, under pressure to modernize its economy, has positioned itself as a key manufacturing hub in global supply chains. For the US, Vietnam’s rise offered a convenient counterweight to China in the region, a strategic asset framed as a partnership.

Strained by tariffs

However, the imbalance in the relationship became clear during Donald Trump’s presidency, when the US imposed tariffs and accused Vietnam of currency manipulation, measures that rattled Hanoi’s export-dependent economy and revived longstanding suspicion of American economic coercion.

Despite continued military overtures and diplomatic gestures, Vietnam remains wary of deep alignment. The partnership today rests on an uneasy mix of economic interdependence and strategic calculation, tempered by memory of war, distrust of American intentions, and the reality that US “cooperation” often comes with conditions.

For Vietnam, engagement with the US is a pragmatic necessity. For Washington, it remains a tool in a broader regional contest, another piece on the chessboard of global power.