Oceania | Diplomacy | Oceania

Vietnam’s Top Leader Concludes Australia Visit With Trade, Defense in Focus

In their updated Joint Vision Statement, Canberra and Hanoi identify a more challenging regional security environment.

Vietnamese President To Lam’s visit to Australia this week highlighted the burgeoning relationship between the two countries. Given that much of Australia’s large Vietnamese diaspora remains suspicious of the Communist Party of Vietnam – and South Vietnam flags are often seen flying in suburbs with a concentration of Vietnamese Australians – there is a domestic balancing act that the Australian government needs to perform. However, the convergence of interests between the two countries is now proving the stronger pull.

The focus of Lam’s visit was on new economic and security agreements. The now dominant lens of Australia’s foreign policy perceives economic security as a central pillar of national security.

The economic angle is where the most movement is already happening. Since 2020, two-way trade has doubled, with Vietnam now approaching Australia’s list of top ten trading partners. The specific measures announced this week were mostly incremental: greater agricultural access (including kangaroo meat), and creating smoother services within e-commerce and banking sectors. The low-cost airline Vietjet confirmed it will fly into the new Western Sydney Airport, due to be opened later this year. These are not transformative arrangements, but things that push the relationship forward in important ways. 

The major development was Vietnam approving a license for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) to open a campus in Hanoi. The university had already established a campus in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000, and has been keen to establish itself as a major driver of the bilateral relationship, including through the creation of the Australia Vietnam Policy Institute to facilitate building the relationship between the two countries. This is part of a broader push by the Australian university sector to embed itself in Southeast Asia, with four other universities operating in Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Although starting from a low base, the two countries’ security relationship has begun to deepen. This is being driven primarily by shared concerns about China’s activity in the South China Sea. Within their updated Joint Vision Statement, Canberra and Hanoi identify a more challenging regional security environment, marked by strategic competition and military build-up in the Indo-Pacific, and express a shared commitment to a rules-based regional order. Although not mentioning China directly, the statement emphasizes a respect for sovereignty and international law, and the importance........

© The Diplomat