Thayer Consultancy Background Brief:

ABN # 65 648 097 123

Vietnam: Assessing 75 Years of
State Diplomacy
Carlyle A. Thayer
July 23, 2020

We are preparing a report on the achievements of Vietnamese diplomacy from 1945

to the present. We request your evaluation of the following questions:
Q1. How do you assess Vietnam's position in the international arena in the present
time?
ANSWER: Vietnam’s international prestige today is at an all-time high. The evidence
for this is Vietnam’s unanimous selection by the Asia bloc in the United Nations as its
candidate for a non-permanent position on the UN Security Council and Vietnam’s
receipt of 192 votes out of 193 in the election held by the General Assembly.
In addition, Vietnam is serving as ASEAN Chair for the third time and its term overlaps
with the first year of its two-year tenure on the Security Council.
Q2. As a long-time researcher of Vietnam, how do you assess the contributions of
Vietnamese diplomacy, from the war to peace, especially in the years after Doi Moi
until now?
ANSWER: When Vietnam adopted Doi Moi in late 1986, it was subject to an
international trade and aid boycott due to its intervention to oppose the Khmer Rouge
in Cambodia. In May 1988, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Communist Party
adopted Resolution No. 8 that set out the far-reaching policy of giving priority to
economic development by creating a favourable security environment. Vietnam
withdrew the last of its military forces from Cambodia in September 1989. Vietnam
also participated in a major international conference in Paris that reached a
comprehensive settlement to the Cambodian conflict in October 1991.
After the Paris Conference on Cambodia Vietnam was able to normalize relations with
China, negotiate with Japan and the European Union to lift their sanctions, and in 1995
normalise relations with the United States.
Vietnam seized the opportunities of the Cambodian settlement to turn the relations
between Indochina and ASEAN from confrontation to peaceful coexistence. In 1995,
Vietnam joined ASEAN as its seventh member and thus became eligible to participate
in all ASEAN-related institutions. This provided a firm foundation for opening up and
integrating with the region and the world. Vietnam became a member of APEC (Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation) and the World Trade Organisation.
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Starting in 2001, Vietnam began negotiating strategic partnerships with the major
powers and other important states. Today is has sixteen strategic partners: Russia,
India, China, Japan, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Singapore,
Thailand, Indonesia, France, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia. Over time several of
these partnerships have been upgraded to comprehensive strategic partners or
comprehensive strategic cooperative partners.
In addition, Vietnam has negotiated twelve agreements on comprehensive
partnerships in Latin and South America (Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina), Europe
(Ukraine, Denmark, Hungary), Africa (South Africa), Southeast Asia (Myanmar,
Brunei), North America (United States), and Oceania (New Zealand).
In 2008-09 Vietnam was first elected to the UN Security Council. It contributed
positively to nuclear non-proliferation. And, additionally, this experience led to
Vietnam’s decision to contribute to UN peacekeeping, first by sending a small number
of military observers to test the waters, and then by dispatching a Level-II field grade
field hospital to South Sudan. Vietnam has committed itself to providing engineer
specialists in disposal of unexploded ordnance.
Vietnam hosted the second Trump-Kim Jong-un summit in Hanoi in February 2019 at
the request of the United States.
In sum, Vietnam has played a positive and constructive role in international relations
at both regional and global level especially after 1995. The United States has
recognized this by listing Vietnam as a potential strategic partner in all major security
and defence policy documents adopted by the Trump Administration. These policy
documents include the U.S. National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy of
the United States and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy. =
Q3. What do you think about Vietnam's multilateral diplomacy which has shifted from
"active participation" to "proactively contributing to building and shaping multilateral
institutions", contributing to helping Vietnam become a positive, responsible member
of the international community? How does this show when Vietnam takes on the
chairmanship of ASEAN 2020 and non-permanent member of the UN Security Council?
ANSWER: Vietnam has used its role as ASEAN Chair to take a proactive leadership role
in ASEAN to respond the COVID-19 pandemic. Vietnam convened a video conference
meeting of ASEAN Health Ministers on 7 April, and two back-to-back summits on 14
April; the first was the Special ASEAN Summit on Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 and
the second was the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit. Vietnam was successful in
securing consensus on a regional response to the coronavirus and in initiating
preliminary discussions on a post-COVID recovery.
Vietnam, which initially had to postpone the 36th ASEAN Summit, managed to host a
video conference 36th ASEAN Summit on 23 June. At both ASEAN summits Vietnam
used the occasion to draw in a support and cooperation from its dialogue partners.
As ASEAN Chair and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Vietnam
has already launched two promising initiatives. The first is to hold a debate on
compliance with the UN Charter at the United Nations. The second initiative is to
arrange the first ever meeting between the United Nations and ASEAN as a regional
organization.
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Q4. What is the greatest achievement of Vietnamese diplomacy in recent decades, in

your opinion?
ANSWER: The greatest achievement of Vietnamese diplomacy since 1986 was to
extricate itself from Cambodia and reorient its foreign policy after the collapse of
socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union by simultaneously normalizing
relations with the United States and joining ASEAN in July 1995.

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, “Vietnam: Assessing 75 Years of State

Diplomacy,” Thayer Consultancy Background Brief, July 23, 2020. All background briefs
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