The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

By Anita Powell

President Joe Biden on Sunday affirmed that the United States and Vietnam would elevate their relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” — a move the White House described as “unprecedented and momentous,” and that brings the U.S. level with its main adversary, China, which has the same upper-tier diplomatic status with Vietnam.

“Vietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time,” Biden said during his first meeting after arriving to a triumphant welcome in Vietnam’s verdant capital, Hanoi, where thousands of residents watched his motorcade pass by. “I’m not saying that to be polite. I’m saying it because I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”

“Vietnam will continue to strengthen its ties to the U.S. and other international partners in the spirit of Ho Chi Minh after Vietnam achieved its independence,” said Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who is considered the nation’s most powerful and respected political official.

“Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community,” he added.

Neither spoke overtly about Beijing’s increased ambitions or its apparent moves, through a new map, to claim territory that Vietnam claims.

“The Vietnamese want a stronger relationship with the United States,” John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, told VOA on the sidelines of the trip. “The Vietnamese share many concerns that the United States has, both economically and from a security perspective in the region. We share a lot of interests; we also have a shared perspective of some of the challenges including the course of behavior of the PRC. It’s really quite a stunning turn of events over recent decades to see our two countries working together this closely.”

This is a big step from a nation that only established relations with the U.S. in 1995, and which has carefully calibrated its relationship with its powerful northern neighbor, China.

In recent years, that bond has strengthened.

Trong and Biden have met before. Trong was the first Vietnamese Communist Party leader to ever visit the U.S., in 2015, and he was hosted for dinner by then-vice president Biden.

The elevation from comprehensive partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership is significant. Vietnam counts only four other nations on that level: China, Russia, India and South Korea.

The difference “sounds like word soup to those of us in the U.S., but for Vietnam, a communist state with a pretty rigid kind of Leninist hierarchy of diplomatic relations, this stuff actually matters,” said Gregory Poling, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“Vietnam has a very clear hierarchy of diplomatic relations,” said Poling, who also serves as director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the CSIS.

“There’s also rumors they may do that for Japan and Australia as well, all of which suggests that the Vietnamese are willing to take a bit of retaliation from China now to make that happen,” he added. “And that will send a message, I think, up and down the Vietnamese government that senior levels are committed to a closer relationship with the Americans, so everybody get on board.”

Bich Tran is a postdoctoral Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Tran said the relationship was “due for an upgrade.”

“An official upgrade will empower Vietnamese officials in engaging with their American counterparts,” she said. “This year is considered the best time to do so because it marks 10 years of comprehensive partnership and 50 years of diplomatic relations. An upgrade will entail deeper security cooperation between the two countries and Vietnam’s commitment to further improve its human rights record.”

The world media has been continuously saying for the last one or two years that if the G-20 is included in India, then it will happen, but there would be no declaration. Russia had already warned that if it were criticized, it would block the Delhi Declaration, while Western countries were also adamant regarding Ukraine.

But very good news has come out: A Great Victory for India: The Delhi Declaration has been accepted at the 18th G-20 Summit. The Prime Minister posted on Twitter: “History has been created with the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration. United in consensus and spirit, we pledge to work collaboratively for a better, more prosperous, and harmonious future. My gratitude to all fellow G20 members for their support and cooperation”. 

This is a wonderful thing, and this work can only be done by a country like India, which enjoys good relations with both Western countries and Russia. Basically, the issue was: world leaders will come to India, but will they agree on declaration documents? The Western countries that led America wanted Russia to be condemned in this declaration, and Russia wanted that it not be condemned regarding Ukraine. Finally, this declaration was accepted. And the most unique thing was that India played the reverse card here.

India told the western countries that we would not condemn Russia excessively in this New Delhi Declaration. When the G-20 was held in Indonesia in 2022, Zelensky was invited as a guest, and he called Russia bad, and many things were written in the declaration about Russia. In comparison to the previous G-20 summits, there was no condemnation of Russia in the New Delhi Declaration. New Delhi told the western countries that it would not condemn Russia in this New Delhi Declaration. At many places where the nuclear threat was talked about, Russia’s name was removed, and this is a geo-political gift from India to Russia. We don’t know why Vladimir Putin did not come to the India G-20; if he had, it would have been a big victory for him. Putin himself enjoyed all this because the declaration was accepted and the western countries did not even raise any objections.

When Dr. Jaishankar was asked about what was discussed in the last G-20 summit in Indonesia, in which Russia was criticized a lot, he replied, “Bali was Bali. This is Delhi.”

When we look at the document of the Delhi Declaration, a very interesting thing comes to light: Ukraine has been mentioned only four times in it. Whereas, in comparison, Ukraine was mentioned 42 times in the previous G-20 declaration. But this does not prove that India took advantage of Russia or gave less importance to Ukraine. When an entire summit is focused on just one war, decisions on other important issues like climate change, education, the economy, and investment are not taken.

It is very clear from the list that, compared to the previous G-20 Summit, this G-20 Delhi Summit has been very successful. There were 73 outcomes in the Delhi Declaration (2023), while there were 27 outcomes in Bali (2022); before that, there were 36 outcomes in Italy (2021) and 22 in Saudi Arabia (2020), meaning it is clear that if we look at the outcomes of the previous G-20 summits, this time India hosted the G-20 summit. Such a successful summit has never been seen.

And this became successful only when New Delhi said that we want the war to stop and we want peace, but now let us talk about many other important issues that are even more important for the whole world. In this connection, the African Union was recognized as a member of the G-20, due to which the G-20 has now changed to the G-21. Along with this, many other decisions have also been taken, including the creation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economy Corridor and the Global Bio-Fuel Alliance. Also, the G-20 satellite will be launched to study climate change.

Since the Ukraine war has been going on for over 500 days, what if it continues for many more years and all the important issues are not discussed? We have to move on. India has achieved a very important political victory by getting the Delhi Declaration passed by all the countries at this summit.