US-Vietnam Relations: Not Just a Bilateral Issue

At the invitation of The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, three staff members of the University, Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Quang Minh, Dr. Bui Thanh Nam and Master Pham Quoc Thanh participated in the International Conference “US-Vietnam Relations: Striving for Stability, 2010-2020” held at the University of Montana (USA) from April 11-13, 2011.The workshop was attended by professors, researchers, experts and State Department officials from the United States and Vietnam, including Mr. Desaix Anderson, US Chargé d'affaires in Vietnam from August 1995 to May 1997 and Mr. Raymond Burghardt, US Ambassador to Vietnam from 2001 to 2004. The main purpose of the workshop was to assess US-Vietnam relations in the new regional and international context, especially when the two countries have normalized relations for 15 years and Vietnam is increasingly integrating more deeply into the region and the world. Since 1995, bilateral relations between the United States and Vietnam have made great strides at an unprecedentedly rapid pace. If in 2001, the two countries signed a bilateral trade agreement (BTA), by 2010, the total value of two-way trade had reached more than 18 billion USD. Although there are still some problems left over from the war such as the issue of missing Americans and prisoners of war (MIA/POW), Agent Orange, Vietnamese people in the US, differences in views on human rights, democracy, and religious freedom, the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the US in recent times has demonstrated a spirit of open, constructive, and comprehensive cooperation, for the benefit of the two countries, while contributing to the stability and common security of the region. While emphasizing the subjective factors of the two countries as the driving force and decisive significance for the bilateral relationship, the statements all emphasized the importance of the changes taking place in the Asia-Pacific region in the early years of the 21st century. The regional security environment has witnessed complex, intertwined changes, both continuous and sudden, containing traditional and non-traditional security issues. Facing these challenges, countries in the region are making efforts to form new political-security cooperation mechanisms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994, ASEAN Plus Three (APT) in 1997, the East Asia Summit (EAS) in 2005, the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+) in 2010 and most recently the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Prominent in all these mechanisms is the power competition between major powers, mainly between the United States and China, and the “steering” and “central” role of ASEAN. In that complex context, the Vietnam-US relationship is no longer and is no longer just a bilateral issue. All scholars, experts and participants of the conference agreed that the most important issue now is that both sides must build trust with each other. With trust, there will be everything. With doubt, there will be hesitation and worry. The conference also agreed that to have trust in the Vietnam-US relationship, the best way is to increase comprehensive and regular exchanges in a constructive, open and respectful spirit at all levels and in all fields, in both top-down and bottom-up directions, in which universities and research centers play an indispensable role.