Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Frank Rose will discuss space security and arms control with local officials in Hanoi as part of his four-country Asia tour that will begin this weekend, the U.S. Department of State said on Thursday.
Rose will travel to China, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan from July 5 to 16 for meetings and external events on space security, missile defense, arms control, and other bilateral and multilateral security topics, according the department.
Hanoi will be his third stop, after Beijing and Seoul.
The U.S. diplomat is scheduled to be in the Vietnamese capital from July 13 to 14, when he will attend meetings at the Vietnam National Satellite Center, the department said on its website.
Assistant Secretary Rose will also engage with senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on issues related to space security and multilateral arms control.
The assistant secretary will conclude his travels in Tokyo, from July 14 to 16, where he will meet with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the Cabinet Office to discuss ways to further reinforce seamless cooperation building upon the U.S.-Japanese partnership spanning seventy years.
Assistant Secretary Rose has been head of the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance since December 2014, according to the U.S. Department of State.
He is responsible for advising the secretary of state on a wide variety of arms control, strategic policy, verification, and compliance issues.
Vietnam and the U.S. are celebrating their 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year, and many top American diplomats have visited the Southeast Asian country.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell was in Hanoi earlier this week, whereas former President Bill Clinton made his fifth visit to Vietnam on Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary.
In late May, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made a three-day visit to Vietnam, during which he said the U.S. government would provide $18 million to help Hanoi buy patrol boats.
Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, is also expected to make a historic visit to Washington, D.C. later this year.
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