United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis today, October 17, made a visit to Bien Hoa Airport – a former air base for U.S. forces storing chemical defoliant Agent Orange, which is blamed for birth defects and cancers among a million Vietnamese – in Dong Nai province.
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| United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis visits Bien Hoa Airport to check a U.S.-funded US$390-million dioxin cleanup project, located in Dong Nai, on October 17. |
United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis today, October 17, made a visit to Bien Hoa Airport – a former air base for U.S. forces storing chemical defoliant Agent Orange, which is blamed for birth defects and cancers among a million Vietnamese – in Dong Nai province.
The U.S. cabinet official arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday, his second visit this year to the country, in an effort to boost bilateral relations between the two nations, reported local media.
This morning, Mattis visited Bien Hoa Airport to check a U.S.-funded US$390-million project to clean up war-era chemical contamination of the ground at this air base near HCMC.
Under a 10-year remediation effort led by the U.S Agency for International Development, work on the project is set to start next year on cleaning up this dioxin hotspot.
The U.S. agency is working with the Air Defense and Air Force Service under Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense in addressing war consequences while fostering bilateral economic, cultural and security relations.
The area was one of the main staging grounds for storing and deploying the poisonous defoliant in the late 1960s and early 1970s – this chemical is feared to have seeped into groundwater, rivers and the local food chain.
A carcinogenic dioxin byproduct of Agent Orange has affected multiple generations in Vietnam, most visibly in children whose severe mental and physical disabilities from enlarged heads to deformed limbs have been linked to the chemical.
Up to three million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, and one million suffer grave health repercussions today, including at least 150,000 children with in-born defects.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Secretary of Defense met with Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan, reported the Vietnam News Agency.
The city’s Party chief said Vietnam wishes to further promote the bilateral comprehensive partnership on the basis of respect for each other’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political regime for the benefit of the two peoples, thereby contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the wider world.
He thanked Mattis for his contributions to the detoxification project at Danang and Bien Hoa airports, affirming that Vietnam will work closely with the U.S. to continue those activities, along with the search for ex-servicemen missing during the war still unaccounted for.
On the occasion, he also expressed thanks to the U.S. for supporting Vietnam in joining the United Nations peacekeeping mission, especially work regarding the field hospital and personnel training at Military Hospital 175.
In early October, the first delegation of Vietnamese medical staff was sent to South Sudan to join the UN peacekeeping mission, he noted.
Mattis, for his part, said the U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership will bring benefits to both sides and contribute to peace and stability in the region.
U.S. firms now invest in 390 projects worth US$1.2 billion in HCMC, ranking 10th among foreign investors in the city. The U.S. remains the largest export market for the city with two-way trade of US$8.2 billion in 2017.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense, who is expected to meet with his Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich later today, also plans to attend the 12th ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting in Singapore later this week.
(Source: SGT)
