Vietnam’s Gaza Board of Peace Gambit: To Lam’s Confident New Foreign Policy
Hoang Thi Ha
Vietnam’s decision to join the Trump-led Gaza Board of Peace speaks less about its Middle East policy and more about its evolving foreign policy.

Hoang Thi Ha
Vietnam’s decision to join the Trump-led Gaza Board of Peace speaks less about its Middle East policy and more about its evolving foreign policy.
Juthathip Jongwanich|Archanun Kohpaiboon
On the surface, it appears that Vietnam’s securing of lower tariffs from the US could make it more competitive than its regional rivals. A deeper examination shows that this might not be the case.
Le Hong Hiep
Vietnam is caught in the middle as the US seeks to clamp down on China using it as a backdoor into the American market.
Hoang Thi Ha|Dien Nguyen An Luong
Vietnam’s fast-tracking of a Trump-branded project is a high-stake diplomatic gambit to curry favour with the US president to ameliorate the extent of US tariffs. But the Trump project should also be viewed in the context of Hanoi’s relentless drive to do away with red tape and pro-business strategy.
Dien Nguyen An Luong
Hanoi is orchestrating a media campaign to project resilience amid Trump’s tariffs and other setbacks in US–Vietnam ties while trying to prevent simmering anti-American sentiments from hurting those ties.
Hoang Thi Ha
Vietnam has been navigating the potential trade headwinds from the second Trump administration with pragmatism and opportunism, aligning with Trump’s transactional approach. The focus has been on fostering corporate partnerships, framing Vietnam-US economic ties as win-win instead of virtue-signalling on free trade.
Le Hong Hiep
Faced with 46 per cent US tariffs, Vietnam is unlikely to retaliate in kind. It is likely that Hanoi would avoid confrontation and lean on diplomacy instead.
Nguyen Hong Thach
Vietnam has done almost everything necessary to preclude the possibility of the US slapping tariffs on its exports. The question is whether this would be enough.
Phan Xuan Dung
Suspending USAID programmes risks undermining years of work building trust between the former enemies and helping victims of the Vietnam War.
Ian Storey
President Putin’s visit to Vietnam was a qualified success for both countries. The Putin regime was able to show that despite Western efforts to isolate it, Russia is not without friends. By hosting the Russian leader, Vietnam was able to honour an old friend and highlight the merits of its bamboo diplomacy.