U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in Vietnam on Sunday, reaffirming a partnership built on healing the scars of the Vietnam War in a trip that will test whether Washington can reassure a vital but wary partner.<\/p>\n
Hegseth said addressing the legacies of the war,\u00a0which ended 50 years ago in April,<\/a>\u00a0remains the foundation and a top priority of the countries\u2019 defense relationship.<\/p>\n At the end of his talks with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang, Hegseth handed over a leather box, a belt and a small knife \u2014 wartime artifacts once taken by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n Such returns have become part of broader reconciliation efforts between the two countries, with similar relics \u2014 including letters, identification tags and photographs \u2014 handed back to the U.S. in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cToday we will exchange artifacts and information from the war with the goal of helping family members in both countries find peace,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s visit also marks 30 years of diplomatic ties between the former foes and two years since they upgraded relations to a\u00a0Comprehensive Strategic Partnership<\/a>, Vietnam\u2019s highest diplomatic status. He arrived in Hanoi from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he attended a meeting of counterparts from the\u00a0Association of Southeast Asian Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cooperation on postwar issues remains key to U.S.-Vietnam relations. Since normalizing ties in 1995, the two countries have worked together to clear unexploded ordnance, recover remains of missing service members and clean up dioxin \u2014 the toxic chemical used in Agent Orange \u2014 from former U.S. air bases that\u00a0continue to affect communities.<\/a><\/p>\n