US secretary of defense to visit Vietnam, meet with Chinese counterpart

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will visit Vietnam and then meet with his Chinese counterpart in Thailand during a trip to Asia this week, AP reports.

While Vietnam is a former US enemy, the two countries have grown closer in recent years. Vietnam’s territorial claims in the entire South China Sea area overlap with those of Beijing.

Esper’s meeting with Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe in Bangkok will mark the first face-to-face exchange between the two officials. However, they spoke via video teleconference from the Pentagon on November 5.