On March 25, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son visited the United States and met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and others. During the meeting, when asked how Vietnam would respond to being caught between China and the United States, Vietnam's statement was meaningful.
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said at an event at the Brookings Institution that Vietnam had wars with the US military and the Chinese army in the 60s and 80s of the 20 th century, and the Vietnamese side is very aware that peace is not easy to come by, so Vietnam must respect its own partners and corresponding policies, whether it is China or the United States.
The Vietnamese side believes that "since ancient times" bamboo has been tied to the history of Vietnam, the Vietnamese use bamboo as a weapon to defend the country, and at the same time use bamboo to make building materials to develop the country, so in foreign policy, Vietnam also adheres to bamboo diplomacy, the principle of bamboo root tenacity is unwavering, but the bamboo stem is flexible and flexible, and a more flexible approach can be adopted in policy.
As a matter of fact, as far as Vietnam is concerned, the Vietnamese side is well aware of why the United States has made a 180-degree U-turn in its attitude toward Vietnam in recent years. This is because the change in the U.S. relationship with Vietnam is not a sincere attempt to accept Vietnam into the Western-dominated international order, but out of the geopolitical needs of containing China and diverting China's industrial chain at this stage, the political systems of the United States and Vietnam are different, which determines that the two sides cannot achieve the same degree of closeness as Japan and South Korea.
In addition, the Vietnamese side is also clear that no matter how much Vietnam deepens its relations with the United States, China is a neighbor that cannot be moved, and only by placing China and the United States on an equal footing can it maximize its interests. On the other hand, if it cooperates with either of the two major powers, China and the United States, at the expense of the interests of a third party, it will be a lose-lose situation, which is obviously not what Vietnam is happy to see.
In the current situation where the Western-dominated international order has not completely collapsed, Vietnam cannot achieve development without China, but also from the European and American markets, so this situation prompts Vietnam, as a small country, to rely on a balanced strategy as much as possible to ensure its own interests.
However, as Europe and the United States intensify competition with China in order to maintain the unilateral order, and use their market position to pressure neutral countries, it remains to be seen whether Vietnam will abandon its balancing act for its own interests. And for this possibility, we should also be prepared, after all, there are precedents in the past history.