16 October 2015

Editorial: Vietnam Between China and the United States - The Next Balancing Test Beckons

By Ngo Di Lan

Upcoming visits next month by US and Chinese leaders will test Hanoi’s balancing skills.

Once again, Vietnam’s diplomatic balancing skills will be put to the test this November when Vietnamese leaders are expected to host Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama within days of each other. This will be Obama’s very first trip to Vietnam, while Xi’s trip will also be the first of any Chinese president since 2005. Since Vietnam has been committed to maintaining cordial relations with both powers even against the backdrop of the increasingly tense situation surrounding territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS), this November will prove to be a delicate and defining moment for Vietnamese great-power management.

U.S-Vietnam ties have been warming considerably in the past several years, with multiple high-level visits of leaders from both countries culminating in General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s unprecedented visit to the United States this July. The result was the historic U.S-Vietnam Joint Vision Statement, which provides a crucial framework within which U.S-Vietnam relations could continue to develop in the longer term. Within this context, Obama’s trip to Hanoi would only consolidate and deepen these ties further.

However, obviously this time Obama will not be in Hanoi to push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) since the negotiating parties had already reached an agreement and the Vietnamese National Assembly would almost definitely ratify the TPP agreement. At a moment when China is rapidly building up artificial islands in the SCS while the U.S. has announced plans for maritime patrols within the territorial waters of these islands, it seems certain that China and the SCS territorial disputes will feature prominently the talks in Hanoi.

Read the full story at The Diplomat