US confident over Vietnam ties despite defence pledges with China

As the two superpowers vie for influence, Hanoi this week declared stronger connections with China, especially on defence and security. In response, a U.S. official stated that the United States will continue to closely cooperate with Vietnam. During China President Xi Jinping’s visit to Hanoi last week, Vietnam’s leaders strengthened their connections with Beijing, three months after they had done the same with Washington during Joe Biden’s visit, which has been hailed as a victory for Vietnam’s “Bamboo diplomacy”. Even if a China-Vietnam declaration contained wording that may be interpreted as disparaging the US, worries that this could interfere with Washington’s intentions to strengthen ties with Hanoi have not received much attention thus far. Following Xi’s visit, Vietnam and China pledged to increase security cooperation, particularly between the defence and logistics sectors. Additionally, the US is attempting to strengthen defence cooperation with Vietnam. In order to stop “hostile forces” from assisting grassroots movements like the ones that recently resulted in revolutions in former Communist nations—which detractors claim were aided by Washington—Vietnam and China also decided to strengthen their intelligence sharing. (With agency inputs)