HANOI – The US Coast Guard has transferred a high-endurance cutter to its Vietnamese counterpart in Honolulu, the US Embassy in Hanoi says, in the latest effort to deepen ties with its former foe.

The move follows an increase in exchanges between the two countries, ahead of a visit to the United States next week by the Vietnamese prime minister and a recent delivery of six patrol boats to the Vietnamese coast guard.

The ship will help the Vietnam Coast Guard carry out maritime law enforcement, and conduct search and rescue and other humanitarian response operations, the embassy said in a statement.

“This cutter provides a concrete and significant symbol of the US-Vietnam comprehensive partnership,” said US Coast Guard Rear Adm. Michael J. Haycock, its chief acquisition officer.

Members of the VCG embark CSB-8020 during a transfer of command ceremony at Coast Guard Base Honolulu, May 25th, 2017. (Photo courtesy: www.toquoc.vn)

The transfer is part of the US Excess Defense Articles program that offers excess military equipment to US partners and allies in support of modernisation efforts, the embassy said.

Vietnam is the country most openly at odds with China over the busy waterway in the disputed South China Sea since the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte took a softer line with Beijing and is cultivating its ties among major powers.

China claims 90 percent of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam lay claim to parts of the sea, through which about $US5 trillion of trade passes each year.

The coast guard exchanges between the United States and Vietnam follow the first visit by a Chinese coast guard vessel to the southeast Asian nation last November and a visit by a Vietnamese coast guard vessel to China early in May, its first ever foreign visit.

Reuters