US Rear Admiral Tom Carney (C) talks to reporters during a welcoming ceremony after a U.S. naval ship, docked at Tien Sa port, in Vietnam's central Danang city July 15, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

DANANG, Vietnam - Three US Navy ships were welcomed Friday by former foe Vietnam for joint training.

US and Vietnamese officials have stressed that the seven-day ship visit and naval training are part of routine exchanges. The US visit, however, did send a message that the Navy remains a formidable maritime force in the region and is determined to build stronger military ties with smaller Southeast Asian countries.

"We've had a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea for 50 to 60 years, even going back before World War II," Rear Adm. Tom Carney, who's leading the naval exchange, told reporters. "We will maintain a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea as we have for decades, and we have no intention of departing from that kind of activity."

He spoke on the pier in central Danang, once home to a bustling US military base during the Vietnam War, in front of the diving and salvage ship USNS Safeguard. American and Vietnamese flags flapped in the steamy air from the ship, and two guided missile destroyers _ USS Chung-Hoon and USS Preble _ were visible off the coast.

The two navies will hold exchanges involving navigation and damage control along with dive and salvage training. No live-fire drills will be conducted.

The current US visit to Vietnam involves about 700 sailors and builds on the first postwar port call in 2003 made to the former Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. Since then, military relations have continued to grow with high-level defense visits and exchanges.

The two sides recently began working together to clean up dioxin contamination from the defoliant Agent Orange. It was mixed and stored at the US air base in Danang and remains one of the lasting legacies of the Vietnam War that killed some 58,000 Americans and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.

The US and Vietnam shook hands in 1995 and established diplomatic relations, signing a landmark trade deal six years later.

Today, the US is Vietnam's top export market, while Americans are among the country's leading foreign investors.