{"id":281113,"date":"2025-11-09T10:57:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T10:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/281113\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T10:57:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T10:57:36","slug":"avoiding-strategic-suicide-vietnams-us-russia-china-diplomatic-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/281113\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding \u2018strategic suicide\u2019: Vietnam\u2019s US-Russia-China diplomatic dance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Half a century after the fall of Saigon, the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/united-states?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">United States<\/a> and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/vietnam?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vietnam<\/a> are edging towards deeper defence cooperation built on shared anxieties about China and Washington\u2019s desire to wean Hanoi off its historical dependence on Russian arms.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived in Hanoi last Sunday for a two-day visit, declaring that establishing stronger security ties would be a win-win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeeper [military] cooperation will benefit both of our countries,\u201d said Hegseth, who had travelled to the Vietnamese capital following meetings in <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/malaysia?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Malaysia<\/a> with his Asian counterparts.Vietnam\u2019s defence ministry said in a statement that both countries had agreed to continue promoting cooperation, including in the defence industry, using careful wording to reflect the delicate balancing act Hanoi is attempting to maintain between its traditional arms supplier, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/russia?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Russia<\/a>, and the West.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam (left) meets former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, head of the ruling United Russia party, in North Korea on October 10. Photo: Sputnik\/AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/71124b52-21d7-4e4f-ac7b-7474e9ed3c0b_d56395c0.jpg\" title=\"Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam (left) meets former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, head of the ruling United Russia party, in North Korea on October 10. Photo: Sputnik\/AP\"\/>Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam (left) meets former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, head of the ruling United Russia party, in North Korea on October 10. Photo: Sputnik\/AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hegseth\u2019s visit came amid protracted negotiations over Washington\u2019s potential supply of military equipment to its former enemy, including transport planes and helicopters.<\/p>\n<p>Yet it also coincided with reports that Hanoi is reinvigorating its defence ties with Russia, buying aircraft and mobile air-defence systems, while simultaneously exploring defence cooperation with <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/finland?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Finland<\/a>, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/turkey?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Turkey<\/a> and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/israel?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Half a century after the fall of Saigon, the United States and Vietnam are edging towards deeper defence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,550,144,21836,11451,803,1205,7933,3,38575,1206,24647,148794,148793,12807,21,19,22,20,25,24,3999],"class_list":["post-281113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-finland","tag-hanoi","tag-israel","tag-malaysia","tag-moscow","tag-news","tag-reuters","tag-russia","tag-south-china-sea","tag-spratly-islands","tag-strategic-suicide","tag-turkey","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}