A step change contributes to bringing Vietnam - US relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

Vietnam and the US have established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace, cooperation and sustainable development, reflecting a change in perception of the US's "strategic" element in foreign relations, according to experts.

After talks on September 10, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden announced that Vietnam and the United States have established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace, cooperation and sustainable development, 10 years after the two countries established a Comprehensive Partnership.

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Nam Tien, lecturer at the Faculty of International Relations, University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Ho Chi Minh City National University, said that this is the highest level in Vietnam's national foreign policy, and at the same time partly reflects the change in the US's perception of the "strategic" factor in partnerships with other countries.

The concepts of partnership levels began to be discussed during the process of Vietnam's foreign policy reform since the 1990s, restoring relations and mending ties with a series of countries, and rapidly integrating into the region and the world.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden at the official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace on September 10. Photo: AFP

At the 9th National Party Congress in April 2001, Vietnam set out the goal of deepening international relations. This raised the need to establish Strategic Partnerships, then a higher priority level, to develop and ensure Vietnam's interests in three aspects: security, prosperity and international position.

Vietnam identifies that in Strategic Partnership relations, all three aspects of security, prosperity and international position are equally important. The "strategic" element does not only have security connotations as commonly perceived in the foreign policy thinking of many other countries.

In the process of Vietnam's international integration, some entities have extensive cooperation with Vietnam in many fields, with intertwined interests but have not reached the "strategic" level as originally defined, often stemming from differences in viewpoints between the two sides.

From this practice, Vietnam established the level of "Comprehensive Partnership" with the meaning that this is the framework to initiate strategic cooperation. Vietnam then established Comprehensive Partnership with 12 countries, including the US, to emphasize comprehensive cooperation aspects, continue to strengthen trust and look towards the future.

Vietnam's foreign policy thinking is not to put security issues first in the Strategic Partnership, but it must simultaneously ensure serving the two remaining goals of prosperity and international position.

Meanwhile, the US once considered close cooperation in security and defense as an indispensable element in "strategic" relations with other countries, typically Saudi Arabia.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have established a Strategic Partnership for more than 80 years, in which security relations have always been emphasized. Saudi Arabia is the largest foreign buyer of US weapons, with a total value of more than 100 billion USD, according to White House statistics. Since the 1950s, the US Corps of Engineers has also played an important role in the construction of civil and military works in Saudi Arabia.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Tran Nam Tien, before the milestone of Vietnam and the US establishing a Comprehensive Partnership in 2013, the two countries actually had enough elements to establish a Strategic Partnership. However, the difference in perception of the "strategic" element in foreign relations may have become a barrier holding back efforts from both sides.

However, US administrations in recent years, especially during President Joe Biden's term, have had a major shift in perception, no longer considering security as an indispensable factor in strategic relations.

In the strategic documents on "Free and Open Indo-Pacific", besides the "strategic alliance" relations that the US has deployed since the Cold War, Washington has put forward another approach of "new partnership".

The US side seems to realize that not all partners want to focus on national security and defense so that bilateral relations can develop to a strategic level. From there, the US wants to establish a new partnership that is more equal in nature, not focusing on military and security.

This was clearly demonstrated when the US and ASEAN decided to upgrade their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia in November 2022. In international relations, ASEAN advocates not choosing sides and not aligning militarily, instead focusing on economic cooperation and other development issues.

This new perception from the US side is considered a step towards building "strategic trust" more suitable with countries like Vietnam, which have similar policies to ASEAN's foreign policy of non-military alignment and focus on development.

This step forward in ASEAN-US relations is essentially a stepping stone for the US to signal that Washington is truly changing its perception, thereby starting to promote relations with each member country, including Vietnam, to a new height.

The US also sent a message that it wanted to build a relationship at a higher level, not to serve the goal of establishing an alliance against a third party or to ensure Washington's security from afar, but instead to truly see the other party as a development partner and have an equal relationship.

Therefore, Mr. Tien believes that the milestone of upgrading ASEAN-US relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022 is very important to the prospects of Vietnam-US relations.

In recent times, the two countries have made efforts to build many dialogue mechanisms at all levels and in many fields to build trust between the two countries, from the "healing period" after 1995 and the "construction period" after establishing the Comprehensive Partnership.

Going through the "constructive phase", Washington's perception of the "strategic" factor has also become more consistent with Vietnam's foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralization, diversification, proactive and active international integration, for the benefit of the nation.

The two sides have regularly shared and institutionalized their views, positions, and common interests, intertwined and supporting each other, especially in the construction phase, thereby reducing disagreements and differences.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Nam Tien said that the concept of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that Vietnam and the US have just established is a higher level of development of the Strategic Partnership. At this level, the relationship between the two countries must first meet the conditions set out in the Strategic Partnership level regarding harmony between prosperity, international position and security.

The difference is that in addition to the "comprehensiveness" in cooperation, expanding across all fields, covering almost no "forbidden areas", the two countries, when upgrading to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, have established the element of "strategic trust" with each other.

This level of relationship does not deviate from Vietnam's established foreign policy thinking over more than three decades of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship and development.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong held talks with US President Joe Biden at the Party Central Committee Office on the afternoon of September 10. Photo: Giang Huy

During yesterday's talks, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed the specific motto for the development of Vietnam-US relations is "putting aside the past, overcoming differences, promoting similarities, and looking towards the future". Vietnam highly appreciates and values ​​the US's affirmation of supporting a "strong, independent, self-reliant, and prosperous" Vietnam.

The General Secretary emphasized a number of major directions to promote Vietnam-US relations, including continuing to enhance mutual understanding, implementing guiding principles, creating long-term stability, high-level meetings and cooperation between sectors and levels, and people-to-people exchanges.

President Biden supports Vietnam's development, including economic and scientific-technological cooperation in the new period such as developing the electronics industry, responding to climate change, and developing clean energy. According to the US President, upgrading the Vietnam-US relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is beneficial to both countries and in common international interests.

The White House also announced that it will strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in eight major areas, in which issues such as economic innovation, science and technology, trade and investment will be the driving force for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

Regarding security cooperation, the US is expected to announce new programs and equipment aid packages to help improve Vietnam’s capacity to combat transnational crime. The US will also promote cooperation in health, overcoming the consequences of war, and business-to-business relations between the two countries.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Nam Tien, upgrading the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the US is a very important step, marking Vietnam's establishment of this level of relationship with the four major countries in the world today, including China, Russia, India and the US.

"Strategic relations with all four major countries will bring Vietnam great opportunities for development, promoting influence and diversifying cooperation," he said. "The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the US and dialogue and cooperation mechanisms will ensure that Vietnam maintains a more effective balance in its relations with all countries, especially in the context of complex international competition today."

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Nam Tien is an expert on the history of Vietnamese foreign affairs at the Faculty of International Relations, University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Ho Chi Minh City National University.

He has had many articles published in domestic and foreign magazines, and is also the editor and co-author of many specialized books on the history of Vietnamese diplomacy.

He is also a member of the national research project Asia-Pacific Regional Structure to 2025 and Vietnam's policies, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, which was accepted in 2019.

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