US military hardware is heading to Hanoi's arms expo as Vietnam presses landing-craft talks with Japan

The US Department of War plans to bring a range of modern military equipment to display at Vietnam's third international defence exhibition in Hanoi from 10 to 13 December, Vietnamese officials said after Defence Minister Phan Van Giang met US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on 28 October. The two men talked in Cebu, in the Philippines, on the sidelines of the ASEAN defence ministers' meetings, and Giang said he welcomed and highly valued the US decision.

The exhibition is organised by Vietnam's defence ministry at Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi and brings together defence companies from Vietnam and abroad, VnExpress reported. It follows earlier editions in 2022 and 2024, and the public will be able to visit on 12 and 13 December. The reports did not say which US systems will be shown.

According to the Vietnamese accounts of the meeting, both ministers said defence ties had made progress in dialogue and consultation, the defence industry and military medicine, and above all in dealing with the legacy of the war. They exchanged wartime records and memorabilia to help Vietnam's campaign to find and identify the remains of its fallen soldiers, which runs from March 2026 to July 2027.

Newsmax, citing the Washington Examiner, reported that Hegseth handed Giang a declassified report that could help recover the remains of more than 400 service members from the war. The outlet noted that the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has recovered more than 1,000 sets of American remains in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, while Vietnamese estimates put the number of Vietnamese war dead never recovered at 175,000 to 200,000.

Giang asked Washington to keep supporting people disabled by Agent Orange, to deliver an additional 130 million US dollars it has committed to the dioxin clean-up at Bien Hoa Airport, and to help Vietnam clear almost all land contaminated by wartime bombs, mines and unexploded ordnance by 2045. A project agreement on the Bien Hoa work and on disability support was signed on 23 September by a Vietnamese deputy defence minister and the US ambassador, the Vietnamese government portal said.

Landing craft talks with Tokyo

Giang also met Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in Cebu on 28 October. According to Japan's Ministry of Defense, the two ministers confirmed that a director-level working group on defence equipment transfer is making progress in talks on equipment and technology cooperation, including the possibility of jointly developing and producing fast landing craft, and they agreed to keep pursuing the project under their own leadership.

Koizumi told Giang that cooperation between the two countries was becoming more important as the regional and international situation grows more severe, the ministry said. The ministers also agreed to continue personnel exchanges, including Vietnamese officers studying at Japan's National Defense Academy, and unit-to-unit exchanges that cover peacekeeping.

The landing craft idea dates from Giang's visit to Tokyo in July, when the two ministers agreed to start discussions on it. At the time Koizumi described such craft only in general terms, as boats that move troops and supplies quickly from ships offshore to beaches, and said Japan would protect participating companies' technology through strict screening because of concerns about Vietnam's close ties with China, Naval News reported. Neither government has disclosed a design, size or builder.

Wider ASEAN agenda

At an informal ASEAN-US defence ministers' meeting in Cebu the same day, Hegseth reaffirmed US support for ASEAN centrality and said Washington was ready to expand cooperation in maritime security, maritime domain awareness, joint training and confidence-building measures, VnExpress reported. Giang called for more effective maritime exercises and proposed wider cooperation in search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and responses to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents.

Together, the two meetings point to Hanoi deepening defence-industrial contacts with both Washington and Tokyo at the same gathering, with US hardware due on show in the Vietnamese capital in December and the Japanese landing craft project still at the working-group stage.