Washington is trying to tear Hanoi away from China and Russia
American President Biden completed his participation in the G20 summit in India ahead of schedule and left for Vietnam on Sunday morning. Washington is trying, if possible, to separate this country, from which the United States suffered a shameful defeat at one time, from ties with China and Russia.
The US President skimped on attending the third session of the G20 “One Future” summit in the Indian capital and flew to Vietnam, as CNN puts it, “to the doorstep of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.”
Biden went to Hanoi with a proposal for rapprochement with the United States to another one of China's neighbors. Over the past five months, Biden hosted a Philippine president at the White House for the first time in more than a decade; he hosted a lavish state dinner in honor of the Prime Minister of India; and he hosted his Japanese and South Korean counterparts for a summit filled with symbolism at the legendary presidential retreat Camp David.
All of Biden's courting of Asian countries reflects an outright sense of unease about China's increasingly assertive military and economic posture, CNN notes.
The latest page in U.S. strategy in Asia, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The Indo-Pacific region will be the establishment of a “comprehensive strategic partnership” that will put the United States on par with Vietnam's highest-level partners, including China.
“This marks a new period of fundamental reorientation of the relationship between the United States and Vietnam,” a senior administration official said ahead of Biden's arrival in Hanoi, saying it would expand the range of issues between the two countries.
“It won't be easy for Vietnam because they are under enormous pressure from China,” the official continued. “We understand what the stakes are, and the president is going to be very careful in how he interacts with his Vietnamese friends.”
The increasingly close network of US partnerships in the region is only one side of the US diplomatic strategy towards China, CNN emphasizes. On a separate front, the Biden administration has also sought to establish more stable ties and improved communications with Beijing over the past year, with a number of senior Cabinet secretaries traveling to the Chinese capital in just the past few months.
The latter part of that action plan has so far yielded less results than Biden's cajoling with China's wary neighbors, a dichotomy that was on full display when Biden attended the G20 in New Delhi while Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not, CNN noted.< /p>
The American president did not appear overly concerned when asked on Saturday about his Chinese counterpart's absence from the summit. “It would be nice to have him here,” Biden said in the presence of Modi and several other world leaders. “But no, the summit is going well.”
With Biden and Xi Jinping vying for influence in Asia and beyond, simply showing up could be seen as a power play, and Biden has sought to make the most of Xi Jinping's absence by seizing the opportunity demonstrate the United States' continued commitment to both the region and developing countries around the world.
In Vietnam, Biden is not only competing with China for influence. As he arrived, reports emerged that Hanoi was preparing to buy weapons from Russia, its longtime arms supplier.
On Monday, Biden plans to announce steps aimed at helping Vietnam diversify its activities and get rid of from «over-reliance on Russian weapons,» a senior administration official said.
Biden hopes to present the United States as a more attractive and reliable partner than China. In New Delhi, he did so by putting forward proposals to boost global infrastructure and development programs as a counterbalance to Beijing. Beijing and Moscow both condemned the so-called “Cold War mentality” that divides the world into blocs, CNN recalls. . The White House insists it is seeking only competition, not conflict. However, CNN adds, Washington's desire to bring countries into its fold appears clear.
On Saturday, Biden held a photo op with the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa, three members of the BRICS group. It is critical for Biden to at least offer poorer countries an alternative to China when it comes to investment and development.
But China's neighbors such as Vietnam are increasingly seeking a counterweight to Beijing's powerful presence in the region, even unless they are ready to completely abandon China's sphere of influence in favor of the United States.
“We are not asking or expecting the Vietnamese to make a choice,” said a senior administration official. “We understand and clearly know that they need and want a strategic partnership with China. That's the nature of the beast.»
Days before Biden's visit and the expected announcement of a strategic partnership, China sent a senior Communist Party official to Vietnam to strengthen «political mutual trust» between the two communist neighbors, the official Chinese news agency reported. Xinhua News Agency.
Asked about Biden's upcoming visit to Vietnam, China's Foreign Ministry on Monday warned the United States against using its relationships with individual Asian countries as a target for «third parties.»
“The United States must abandon the zero-sum mentality of the Cold War, abide by the basic norms of international relations, not target third parties and not undermine regional peace, stability, development and prosperity,” ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.< /p>
Vietnam also sought to maintain good ties with China. The head of the Chinese Communist Party became the first foreign leader to visit Xi Jinping in Beijing since the Chinese leader secured an unprecedented third term in office last October. In June, the Vietnamese Prime Minister met with Xi Jinping during a state visit to China.
But even as it seeks to avoid Beijing's displeasure, Vietnam is moving closer to the United States for economic reasons—its trade with the United States has surged in recent years and is seeking to benefit from American efforts to diversify supply chains away from China—and out of concern over China's military buildup in the South China Sea.
Experts say these closer partnerships are as much a credit to the Biden administration's comprehensive China strategy as they are a consequence of Beijing's increasingly assertive use of its military and economic power in the region.
Improvement U.S.-Vietnamese relations are of utmost importance given Washington's complicated history with Hanoi. The two countries have gone from mortal enemies who fought a devastating war to increasingly close partners, even though Vietnam is still ruled by the same communist forces that ultimately prevailed and forced the US military out of the country.< /p>
Even though the relationship has been a decade in the making, U.S. officials say a concerted commitment to taking the relationship to new heights has broken the decades-long momentum.
Visit to Washington in late June Vietnam's top diplomat, Chairman Le Hoai Trung, confirmed this possibility. According to a Biden administration official, during a meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, they first discussed the possibility of improving relations.