Veeramalla Anjaiah (R), a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), grants an interview to the VNA's correspondent. (Photo: VNA) Talking to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s resident correspondent in Indonesia, Veeramalla Anjaiah, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), highly evaluated Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s contributions to Vietnam’s diplomacy through the introduction of the term “bamboo diplomacy” in 2016.
Bamboo is important to the history, culture, and daily life of the Vietnamese people, and it symbolises strength, durability, and resilience. General Secretary Trong introduced the term of “bamboo diplomacy” based on those characteristics of the plant to imply that independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisation form the lodestar of the country’s foreign policy.
The former senior editor at The Jakarta Post held that the “bamboo diplomacy” aims to respond to the shift of power of major countries in the region; promote trade and the culture and identity of Vietnam; and emphasise the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, activeness, and non-intervention.
The country’s “bamboo diplomacy” has succeeded in maintaining relations with big countries while ensuring that national interests are protected, he said, adding Vietnam is currently one of the countries with considerable diplomatic influence in Southeast Asia.
With this special foreign policy, Vietnam has obtained major successes in the international arena. It now has diplomatic relations with more than 190 countries, and comprehensive strategic partnerships (CSP) with the US, China, Russia, India, and the Republic of Korea. It has also laid the foundation for setting up the CSPs with Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Veeramalla noted that the country has become an active and responsible member of over 70 important international organisations and forums such as the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It has become a country friendly to all.
In 2019, the S-shaped nation made strong impression when it was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020 - 2021 term with 192 approval votes out of the total 193. It has also gained considerable economic and trade achievements, the researcher went on.
He said through the “bamboo diplomacy” policy, Vietnam has helped promote a rules-based regional security architecture, peacefully resolve international disputes, and maintain the strategic balance in its relations with major countries.
It has committed to stepping up the building and consolidation of the strategic trust in the region and expressed its wish that all disputes, including those in the East Sea, must be settled peacefully on the basis of international law such as the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The country has also called for an effective code of conduct in the East Sea to be achieved to sustain peace, stability, security, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the region, according to the researcher./.
VNA
