Vietnam

Book Review: India-Vietnam Relations: Development Dynamics and Strategic Alignment, by Reena Marwah and Le Thi Hang Nga (Springer Nature, 2021) In Vietnamese culture dissent…

What recent changes at the top mean for Vietnam

Within the span of the last few weeks, a series of major high-level personnel changes have taken place inside the Vietnamese government. On 5 January, deputy prime ministers Pham…

With caution and tact: How Asian countries voted on Ukraine at the UN

On 26 February last year, a few days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued a statement expressing “concern’’ over the “evolving…

Economic diplomacy: Diversification is hard to do

Catching up It is now 25 years since then World Bank senior vice-president and chief economist Joseph Stiglitz remarkably turned on his employer to set out a roadmap for …

What Vietnam can learn from Thailand’s fight against illegal fishing

Illegal fishing activities conducted by Vietnamese vessels have spiked during the first six months of 2022, with most boats caught encroaching into the waters of Indonesia,…

Thailand seeking to profit from a global food crisis

In response to worldwide supply chain issues caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – who between them previously accounted for nearly one-third of global wheat supplies –…

Diplomacy is indispensable to manage the Mekong

Milton Osborne mischaracterises the Mekong River Commission when writing last month in The Interpreter that the regional organisation “ignores reality”. To say we were …

Vietnam’s “Four No’s” of defence policy are being tested

Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, there has been ongoing controversy over the response by the Vietnamese government, which has refrained from naming Russian…

Taming troubled waters

While regional countries respond to Covid-19 and the many social and economic consequences, ensuring peace and stability in the South China Sea has become even more important due…

How the Mekong River Commission ignores reality

Among the many “days” celebrated by the international community, one entrant seems especially incongruous. “Mekong Day” was proclaimed by the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC)…