Role of Vietnam in Europe’s Indo-Pacific stragedy: present and perspective

Abstract

The Indo-Pacific has partially replaced the term Asia Pacific and emerged as a geo-economic and geostrategic concept over the last decade, with Japan, Australia, the United States and India each launching their own respective plan. As a long-time investor and development donor, the EU did grab the chance. The European Council reached agreement on an EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in April 2021, and in September, it presented a Joint Communication providing further rationale for its strategy. This paves the way for the EU to join the other long-standing advocates of the Indo-Pacific strategy. As a member of ASEAN and an important geo-strategic and geo-economic position, Vietnam is considered a like-minded partner with the EU and expected to promote EUs stance in the region. The study will therefore clarify the role of Vietnam in EU and its members strategies and how Hanoi views their engagement.