A US aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam Monday for the first time since the end of the war, as the former foes bolster military ties in the face of Beijing’s build-up in the disputed South China Sea. The USS Carl Vinson arrived in Vietnam during the navy’s multinational disaster response exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, but its presence is also being widely perceived as an attempt to counter China’s military influence in Asian waters, where the East and South China Seas are the scenes of escalating territorial disputes. US officials refused to be drawn on the tensions with China on Monday, insisting the trip was a routine deployment to the Western Pacific. Beijing has warned not to challenge its sovereignty in the resource-rich sea When the United States deployed aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to patrol the increasingly contentious South China Sea last month.