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Vietnam
This Week in AsiaOpinion
Bich Tran
Bich Tran

Asian Angle | Can Vietnam afford the reputational costs of friendship with Myanmar junta?

  • Vietnam eyes a higher international standing but its response to Myanmar’s political unrest has undermined its global ambitions
  • Vietnam’s leaders likely have domestic political, economic considerations that are holding them back from speaking against the junta

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People ride past the National Assembly building in Hanoi, Vietnam. At the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 2011, Vietnam announced the goal of raising its international standing. Photo: AP
Bich Tran
On August 25, 2017, Vietnam and Myanmar signed a comprehensive partnership, which prioritises political, defence and security, economic, cultural and social, and people-to-people cooperation. Their joint statement on the partnership stressed the importance of sustainable and effective management and the utilisation of the Mekong River’s resources. Notably, Myanmar – a non-claimant in the South China Sea dispute – agreed with Vietnam on the importance of complying with international laws, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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A comprehensive partnership with Myanmar is in line with Vietnam’s overall foreign policy of prioritising relations with its neighbouring countries. However, the Vietnamese government’s responses to the Rohingya crisis and the 2021 coup d’état and subsequent violence in Myanmar have likely undermined Vietnam’s ambition to elevate its international status.
At the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 2011, Vietnam announced the goal of raising its international standing. This proclamation came after Vietnam’s successful term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from 2008 to 2009 and its chairmanship of Asean in 2010.

The 2016 political report of the CPV reaffirmed Vietnam’s commitment to be a responsible member of the international community. However, Hanoi has not responded to the political unrest in Myanmar in a way that befits its foreign policy aspirations.

On August 25, 2017, the same day of the signing of the comprehensive partnership, Myanmar’s military launched a ruthless campaign of massacres, rape, and arson against the Rohingya, in response to attacks on army and police posts by a militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Myanmar’s successive governments have implemented systematic discriminatory policies against Muslim Rohingya since the late 1970s. This has forced millions of Rohingya to flee their homes and take refuge in nearby countries, especially in the past several years.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh hold placards as they gather at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp to mark the fifth anniversary of their fleeing from neighbouring Myanmar. Photo: Reuters
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh hold placards as they gather at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp to mark the fifth anniversary of their fleeing from neighbouring Myanmar. Photo: Reuters
While the talks on the Myanmar-Vietnam comprehensive partnership started long before the 2017 Rohingya crisis, Hanoi could have paused the process when it became clear that even Myanmar’s first democratically elected government, which came to power in 2016, was doing nothing to help the Muslim Rohingya population for fear of alienating Buddhist nationalists and jeopardising its power-sharing agreement with the military.
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Vietnam instead turned a blind eye to the Rohingya issue and the resulting humanitarian and refugee crisis outside Myanmar’s borders. In fact, Asean as an institution has been mostly silent on Myanmar’s mistreatment of the Rohingya and the refugee crisis, as its member states cleave to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs.

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