HANOI, October 13. /TASS/. Vietnam does not intend to host other countries’ troops and military infrastructure, even those of friendly states, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh said on Thursday.
"We will not give permission to any country to set up military bases in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," the spokesman stressed. "We firmly abide to the principle of not joining international military alliances as well as not supporting one state against another."
Thus, the diplomat commented on the recent reports citing the possibility of the establishment of foreign military facilities in Vietnam.
According to Le Hai Binh, relations of strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia have been developing successfully and making a rapid headway, but the possibility of the Russian Navy’s return to Cam Ranh harbor is not on the agenda.
The Vietnamese diplomat said that his country was systematically conducting its own open peace policy, based on diversified and multi-vectored international ties. Vietnam has repeatedly said it is firmly committed to a policy of "three don’ts": "We do not join international military alliances, we never team up with one country in its standoff with another, and we never allow any countries to deploy military bases in our territory," Le said.
His statement reflects Hanoi’s official response to speculations in some Russian mass media to the effect Russia was considering the possibility of restoring its military bases abroad - Cam Ranh in Vietnam and Lourdes in Cuba.
One of the key Vietnamese bases in Cam Rahn was used by the US military during the Vietnam war (1964-1975) and later by the Soviet and Russian military. The US and the French naval ships have been stopping by at Cam Ranh bay recently.
Cam Ranh was Russia’s largest foreign naval base for a period of 23 years. The treaty that allowed Moscow to use the base on disinterested terms was concluded on May 2, 1979. In 2001 Russia declared the intention to stop using the facility. In the context of a changing political situation in the world the Russian leadership made a decision to pullout the Russian base, because Cam Ranh had coped with its task maintaining military cooperation with Hanoi.
When Russia left Cam Ranh, the facility’s status of a foreign military base in Vietnamese territory was terminated. Back in 2002 Hanoi stated unequivocally that it had no intention of leasing it to other countries. Cam Ranh Bay, he said, would be used exclusively for the purposes of the country’s social and economic development.
Vietnam’s central province Khan Hoa has created an international commercial port, open to any foreign ships without an exception, including military ones.