The location determines the point of view: While Europe is under the spell of the Russian war of aggression once morest Ukraine, Southeast Asia is worried regarding an escalation of the Taiwan conflict. The situation is “extremely worrying,” Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Trung Kien told Austrian journalists ahead of Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg’s (ÖVP) visit to Hanoi. But the “fratricidal war” in Ukraine is by no means indifferent.
The war in Ukraine “surprised the world” because the region of Southeast Asia was actually seen as the focal point, said Nguyen. Now the war is accelerating the “arms race” in the region. There are several military maneuvers, “the temperature is rising,” Nguyen complained. Aside from the Taiwan conflict, six countries are involved in territorial disputes over islands in the South China Sea. “Not all of these countries are committed to a peaceful solution,” the diplomat said, referring to China. “This is disturbing.”
Nguyen also countered the impression that his country was indifferent to Russian aggression in Ukraine. They abstained from the UN resolutions condemning Russia because certain formulations “did not help to achieve peace,” explained the diplomat. “We are once morest any form of war. We have suffered enough wars,” he said, referring to the Vietnam War, which is still dividing many families in the country today.
“We have good relations with both Russia and Ukraine,” Nguyen said. Many Vietnamese are emotionally affected by the war because they know both countries from personal experience. There are Vietnamese who have lived in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and studied Russian. “Now you see two brothers hitting each other.”
The war in Ukraine “shocked” Europeans, but it also had a history and was “not black and white,” Nguyen said. “There is no easy solution in Ukraine where one side loses or wins. We know from our own experience that it is not easy,” said the diplomat. Objecting that his country is a prime example of complete victory in a war, Ngyuyen countered, “We never said we wanted to defeat America. We sent them home.”
African colleagues kept asking him “how you can get back together with America following such a bloody war,” Nguyen commented on the political and economic rapprochement with the United States. “I’m proud that we can do it,” said the diplomat, before pointing out that the shared history with China was even more horrible. Centuries ago, they tried to wipe out the entire Vietnamese people. “But we haven’t disappeared.”
In fact, the once isolated communist country is now downright courted by the West. “Our two countries are closer today than ever before,” stressed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday during a visit to Hanoi. A few days following the 50th anniversary of the shameful US withdrawal from Vietnam, Blinken underlined his commitment “to a strong, prosperous, resilient and independent Vietnam”.
The US is clearly looking for regional allies in the conflict with China. However, Vietnam is unlikely to openly side with Washington in order to avoid becoming a bloody plaything for the great powers once more. The country has had to experience what Ukraine is going through at the moment several times. “In the past 40 years, we have been ambushed by four of the five permanent members of the Security Council,” said then Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach in the late 1970s. The former colonial powers France, Great Britain, the USA and China were meant. Of course, the fifth UN veto power, the Soviet Union, was not completely idle either, as it was the most important military supporter of the communist North, which was victorious in the Vietnam War.
