Opinion | Vietnam’s ideal position is strategic equidistance from the US and China
- While Vietnam and the US played up their comprehensive partnership on Anthony Blinken’s visit to the Southeast Asian nation, Hanoi has not allied with the West against China
- Vietnam’s preference is not only to refuse choosing between the US and China, but also to actively pursue strategic cooperation with middle powers
Two-way trade ballooned from US$450 million in 1995 to a whopping US$138 billion last year, with more than a quarter of Vietnam’s total exports heading to the US market alone.
However, with US President Joe Biden placing the promotion of democracy at the heart of his foreign policy, his top diplomat was careful to emphasise that “we continue to underscore how future progress on human rights is essential to unleashing the full potential of the Vietnamese people”. Although Blinken’s meetings with his Vietnamese counterparts were convivial, human rights issues have prevented a full blossoming of bilateral strategic ties.
By all indications, the Southeast Asian nation is determined to stick to a policy of “multi-alignment”, delicately maintaining robust ties with multiple powers without sacrificing Hanoi’s strategic autonomy in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment.
There is a reason a cornerstone of contemporary Vietnam’s national security strategy are the “four noes”: no siding with one power against another; no hosting foreign military bases; no treaty-based military alliances with foreign powers; and no deployment of coercive force or threat of war as an instrument of foreign relations.