Indonesian Maritime Security Agency vessel KN Tanjung Datu, left, sails alongside U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton during joint exercises in the Singapore Strait in August 2019. IMAGE CREDIT: PO1 LEVI READ/USCG

Below is an excerpt from a May 12, 2022 White House Fact Sheet. Notably there is some significant new tasking for the Coast Guard here.

Here is a link to the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific’s Maritime Pillar” referred to in the excerpt. See particularly V. Areas of Cooperation, Maritime Cooperation, paragraphs 14 and 15 on page 3.

Presumably, this is being implemented, at least in part, as a result of NOAA’s “National Five Year Strategy for Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing (2022-2026) which designated Vietnam as one of five “Priority States.”

EXPANDING MARITIME COOPERATION

The United States is committed to supporting implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific’s Maritime Pillar. Today we are announcing $60 million in new regional maritime initiatives, most of which will be led by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).

• Personnel and Presence: The USCG will deploy assets and assign additional personnel to the Indo-Pacific to help meet partners’ requests for maritime training and capacity-building, to include a USCG attaché at the U.S. Mission to ASEAN.
• Countering Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: The Department of State, Department of Labor, and USCG will launch new initiatives to help ASEAN counties counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and strengthen the capacity of ASEAN sectoral bodies to prevent forced labor in the fishing industry.
• Indo-Pacific Support Platform: The USCG will deploy a cutter to Southeast Asia and Oceania for security cooperation and to operate as a training platform. This cutter will deploy throughout the region providing multinational crewing opportunities, conduct training missions, and participate in cooperative maritime engagements.
• Excess Defense Articles: As USCG decommissions cutters, the service will prioritize the transfer of ships to Southeast Asian countries to increase the coastal nations’ maritime law enforcement capacity and promote a free and open Pacific.
• Southeast Asia Training Team: The Department of State and USCG will expand USCG support to maritime law enforcement agencies in Southeast Asia by placing a training team in the region for the first time with additional dedicated support from U.S.-based trainers. These technical experts will provide capacity-building for the regional partners’ maritime law enforcement agencies in the areas of institutional development, readiness, sustainment of equipment, and workforce professionalization.
• Emergency Training: The USCG and the Department of State will provide new trainings on energy safeguards, protection of critical maritime infrastructure, and all-hazards response.