News and Analysis - Vietnam President Triet’s Visit to the United States in Strategic Context (24 June 2007)

Vietnam’s President Nguyen Minh Triet met with U.S. President George Bush on Friday 22 June as part of a six-day visit to the United States. Although former Vietnamese Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai, visited the U.S. in 2005, this is first head of state visit since Vietnam’s reunification in 1975. Triet’s trip follows Bush’s visit to Vietnam in November of 2006, where the two formally met for the first time while Bush was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial.

In a joint statement issued during this first meeting, the two presidents stated that the bilateral relationship, “encompasses significant and growing trade and economic ties, an emerging military-to-military relationship, successful co-operation on health, growing cultural and educational links, a commitment to resolving remaining issues stemming from the war, a shared interest in ensuring peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, and frank and candid discussion of differences.”   (Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s Embassy’s website, 23 June 07)

Known as a strong proponent for the liberalization of the Vietnamese economy, President Triet, accompanied by more than 100 Vietnamese businesspersons, was most interesting in using this trip for expanding economic links between the two countries. In doing so, he was prepared to be called on the carpet over Vietnam’s continuing human rights problems.  Vietnam’s recent ascension to the World Trade Organization was seen as a significant milestone to integrating Vietnam into the world economy and was a matter of considerable prestige to Triet whose short-term goal, in relation to the U.S., is a complete normalization of trade relations. In pursuit of this goal, during this visit, Triet signed a Trade and Investment Framework, which will assist in opening up Vietnamese trade markets to U.S. investors. He also secured a 2.5 billion USD memorandum of understanding involving a host of U.S. companies, including Microsoft and Citigroup to help modernize designated Vietnamese state-owned enterprises.  Trade between the two countries has reached 10 billion USD’s a year and the U.S. is now the biggest market for Vietnamese exports.

President Bush and U.S. congressional members who met with Triet, on the other hand, took advantage of the visit to not only reaffirm the growing economic relationship but also to harangue President Triet over human rights issues and religious repression in Vietnam. Triet responded, “The Vietnamese laws could not be 100 percent the same as the United States laws, due to different historical backgrounds and conditions.” (Associated Press, 23 June 07)

(Comment – President Triet’s visit to the United States is set against a coming of age for Vietnam. After a long and arduous struggle for independence and unification that pitted Vietnam’s communist leadership in direct conflict with the Western powers, the country is now starting to see itself as rising local power. If problems with corruption and an over reliance on state owned enterprises can be overcome in favor of a more efficient and profitable market based economy, the country in time will likely generate the momentum necessary for moving forward in realizing this objective. However, geopolitically, it is faced with a somewhat daunting task of balancing two formidable powers: China and the United States. China, which has over the last few years shown remarkable dexterity in pushing its foreign policy agenda in Southeast Asia and expanding its strategic reach, is starting to tilt the regional balance of power in its favor.  This has not been lost on the Vietnamese leadership, who realize that Vietnam, besides sitting on China’s southern border, competes with the PRC for a wide variety of sea based natural resources. Though in competition in many ways, the Vietnamese leadership also regard the Chinese model of a tightly controlled communist run centralized government, with a booming economy, as a promising template for its own economic evolution. Conversely, the Vietnamese no doubt also view China’s steady long march towards regional dominance with concern. This dovetails with the United States’ deep unease with China’s growing influence and increasing military capabilities. Up to a point the Vietnamese are willing to leverage these U.S. concerns to their own ends in order to ensure that China is kept off balance as to future Vietnamese intentions vis-à-vis the U.S. The U.S., viewing Vietnam as a useful counterweight to China’ s drive to regional dominance, is attempting to move the relationship forward across a wide spectrum in the areas good governance, humanitarian assistance, military-to-military relations, and economic linkages. In the future, one can expect Vietnam’s carefully crafted foreign policy will continue to fluctuate between the two larger powers, drawing them near at times, but pushing them back if they feel the closeness of one will be viewed as overly threatening to the other.)  [slr]