Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words As Vietnam and the United Kingdom elevated their bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, Hanoi has reached a symbolic milestone: it is now the only country in the world maintaining such a relationship with all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States,
China, Russia, France and the UK.
This rare diplomatic geometry reflects Vietnam’s ambition to act as a bridge across global fault lines. Yet it also exposes a deep paradox: can a small nation truly sustain equidistance among powers that are openly at odds with one another?
Vietnam’s “bamboo diplomacy”, as the Communist Party calls it, has been praised for its flexibility and restraint. But behind the metaphor lies a delicate balancing act shaped by historical trauma, economic pragmatism and a fierce instinct for regime survival. By cultivating ties with competing powers, Hanoi seeks both protection and autonomy – to avoid dependence on any single patron while extracting maximum strategic value from all.
The approach has worked so far, elevating Vietnam’s status on the global stage. But it also risks overextension. Aligning simultaneously with Washington’s Indo-Pacific agenda, the ambitions of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, Moscow’s nostalgic Eurasian vision, and now London’s post-Brexit outreach requires not just flexibility but near-impossible coherence.
General Secretary
To Lam’s recent visits to
North Korea, Finland, Bulgaria and now the UK underscore his effort to consolidate foreign policy legitimacy before Vietnam’s 14th party congress. His “omnidirectional” diplomacy is both a showcase of strategic mastery and a test of internal power consolidation.
