ARTICLES

4 Apr 2025

How Will Vietnam Deal With President Trump’s Shocking Tariffs?

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.

25 Mar 2025

Can Vietnam Dodge the US Tariff Bullet?

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.

International Trade Trade U.S.-Vietnam Relations Vietnam

13 Mar 2025

Mending Fences: Vietnam and Cambodia’s Diplomatic Reset

Nguyen Khac Giang

The Ho Chi Minh City Summit signals a pragmatic reset in Vietnam-Cambodia relations, driven by economic interests rather than ideology. Successful cooperation would bring the added advantage of enhancing their collective bargaining power with external actors and strategic flexibility as the great power competition intensifies.

Cambodia Diplomacy Hun Manet Laos To Lam Vietnam

6 Mar 2025

Vietnam-Ukraine Ties: More Engagement, More Balanced Approach?

Nguyen Hong Thach

Vietnam, traditionally seen to be more allied with Russia, has recently increased its diplomatic engagements with Ukraine. This could result in Vietnam taking a more neutral stance in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Vietnam Vietnam-Russia relations Vietnam-Ukraine Relations

21 Feb 2025

Trump’s Aid Freeze Could Disrupt Progress in US-Vietnam Reconciliation

Phan Xuan Dung

Suspending USAID programmes risks undermining years of work building trust between the former enemies and helping victims of the Vietnam War.

U.S.-Vietnam Relations US Vietnam Vietnamese Politics

17 Feb 2025

To Lam’s Pragmatic Pitch to Vietnam’s Youth: Economic Prosperity, Political Control

Dien Nguyen An Luong

Compared to their Southeast Asian peers, Vietnamese youth are more economically optimistic but politically disengaged. These attitudes concur with pragmatism of the country’s top leader To Lam, which focuses on material prosperity while calibrating civic freedoms to regime imperatives.

Vietnam Vietnamese Demography Vietnamese Politics

31 Jan 2025

Vietnam’s Era of ‘National Rise’: Great Expectations

Phan Xuan Dung

To Lam, Vietnam’s General Secretary, intends to usher his country into a new period of “national rise”. But the accelerated nature of his goal will be challenging.

Vietnam Vietnam Elections Vietnamese Politics

6 Jan 2025

Will the “Chronic Disease” of Vietnam’s Private Banks Ever Be Treated?

Le Hong Hiep

Truong My Lan's death sentence for gross embezzlement sends a chilling warning, but Vietnam needs to address the banking sector’s root problems of cross-ownership and corrupt lending practices.

Vietnam Vietnamese Economy Vietnamese Politics

2 Jan 2025

Outlook 2025

The South China Sea in 2025: More of the Same, Possibly Worse

Ian Storey

The prognosis for tensions in the South China Sea dispute this year is pretty straightforward: what has been and is will continue to be so, and perhaps even worse.

China Indonesia Outlook 2025 Philippine South China Sea Vietnam