The United States announced two new foreign assistance efforts aimed at helping a number of Southeast Asian countries through regional and bilateral assistance to advance maritime capacity building.Speaking at a press conference in Vietnam, Secretary of State John Kerry announced an initial commitment of $32.5 million in new regional and bilateral assistance,of which $18 million is intended to strengthen Vietnam’s Coast Guard.This will include maritime law enforcement training and five new fast patrol vessels for improving the Vietnamese coastal patrol’s ability to deploy rapidly for search and rescue, disaster response, and other activities.The remainder of the funds will support bilateral capacity-building programs with other Southeast Asian countries,and increase training for maritime law enforcement officials in Southeast Asia in multilateral settings.The expanded U.S. assistance builds on existing maritime programs for combatting piracy, countering transnational organized crime and addressing terrorist threats.“This is part of a gradual and deliberate expansion that has been planned for some period of time which we have been working on,” said Secretary Kerry.“It expands on existing agreements and programs that we have now and it builds on a commitment to strengthen maritime capacity within ASEAN and within this region.So, this is really an ongoing policy and not some kind of quickly conceived reaction to any events in the region,”he said.“No region can be secure in the absence of effective law enforcement in territorial waters,” he said.
