Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States wants to formally upgrade its relationship with Vietnam, in part to reinforce the “rules-based” order in the Indo-Pacific, as Washington continues to seek deeper ties with countries in Asia wary of China’s rise.
The U.S. will direct teams in the coming weeks to talk with Vietnamese officials about deepening the decadelong “comprehensive partnership” between the two countries, Blinken said in Hanoi on Saturday.
Blinken said the U.S. was finalizing the transfer of a third U.S. Coast Guard cutter to Vietnam, as part of a growing security partnership that’s seen the provision of 24 patrol boats and other equipment since 2016.
“I don’t want to speak for our Vietnamese colleagues, but certainly from our perspective, we think this is an auspicious time to elevate our existing partnership,” Blinken said in the Vietnamese capital. “This is a good moment to go even further.”
His comments echo those of other senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Vice President Kamala Harris. Last year, the Biden administration moved to elevate broader U.S. ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”
Wary of China
Vietnam, which fought a war with China in the late 1970s, has long been wary of China’s growing economic, diplomatic and military might in the region, and has sparred with Beijing over maritime claims in the South China Sea.
At the same time, the third most-populous country in Southeast Asia has seen rapid economic growth powered by manufacturing and companies diversifying away from China, developments that have made Vietnam a growing regional partner for countries in the West.
Although Blinken didn’t mention China by name, he was clearly alluding to Beijing’s activities in the region when he added that “on the South China Sea, I think it’s very clear that countries throughout the region, to include Vietnam, feel strongly about the importance of respecting the rule of law, particularly the Law of the Sea convention — when it comes to issues of freedom of navigation, when it comes to maritime disputes, when it comes to illegal fishing.”
Not so simple
Blinken, who canceled a long-planned trip to Beijing earlier this year after the U.S. detected an alleged Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental US, also praised Vietnam’s growth and growing economic ties to Washington. He said the country’s decision to join the Biden administration’s Indo Pacific Economic Framework was helping to build more resilient supply chains following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet upgrading ties with the U.S. is tricky for Vietnam, which has attempted to balance thriving U.S. economic and security ties with longstanding worries that Beijing may retaliate to pressure Hanoi to reconsider its position.
Upgrading the relationship is relatively easy for the U.S., despite some clear human rights concerns, but is much harder for a communist country like Vietnam with formal hierarchies of diplomatic relations said Gregory Poling, who directs the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“The reason that the U.S. hasn’t been elevated is that hierarchy is, of course, because of Vietnam’s worries about being punished diplomatically and economically by China,” Poling said. He added that it would likely take a leader-level trip to cement any deal but that countries such as Vietnam want to see more meaningful trade deals with the U.S.
“They want to know that there’s enough tangible benefits to outweigh the likely cost from China,” Poling continued. “And, you know, things like IPEF do not impress. So we don’t have a lot to offer on the economic side that we’re not already doing.”
Formally upgrading ties would allow the two countries to work together more effectively, and allow Washington and Hanoi to launch new areas of cooperation, Blinken said. President Joe Biden, who spoke to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party a few weeks ago, also talked about upgrading and deepening the bilateral relationship, Blinken added.
“Both Washington and Hanoi are almost completely aligned on the kind of Indo-Pacific that we want to see,” Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters in a call ahead of Blinken’s travel, also without mentioning China. “A region that’s free and open, where all countries large and small play by the same rules, where large countries don’t bully small ones.”
