New Delhi: Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet said his country is not concerned about punitive measures or punishment from China, just months after the South East Asian country elevated ties with the US to a strategic partnership.
He argued that this was evident when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam a month after US President Joe Biden travelled to the country in September, and had remarked that relations between Washington and Hanoi — previously involved in a brutal war from 1955-1975 — had entered a “new stage”.
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi Friday, the Vietnamese minister said, “We upgraded relations with the US [last September] to a strategic partnership, which is the highest level of partnership that we have with any other nation. We have that with India as well. There were of course concerns that China may react in a negative way.”
“But a month later, President Xi [Jinping] visited Vietnam and agreed on a wide range of issues that we worked on to strengthen our bilateral relations. We have, in fact, seen fruits of that cooperation in terms of trade and investment,” he added.
Last December, Xi met Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi during which the two countries signed a slew of documents. Xi, during the trip, also stressed the need for China and Vietnam to “work in solidarity in their socialist cause”.
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‘China won’t weaponise Mekong water resources’
The Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister also shut down suggestions that China could weaponise the 4,900 km-long Mekong, a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia that runs through several regional players.
He argued, rather, that it is China’s development of dams along the river that is a cause for concern for Hanoi.
“If China were to shut down water [resources] from the Mekong, that would impact not only Vietnam but Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. I don’t think any country would imagine using that as a weapon,” he told the audience.
“What we are concerned about is the unsustainable use of water in Mekong. They [China] have already built dozens of dams…we have been working with other countries in the region to ensure that any development projects will take into account the negative environmental impact,” he added.
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