Opinion | Trump met Kim in Hanoi, and the biggest winner may be Vietnam
- Vietnam’s role as host of the high-profile summit has consolidated its friendship with the US, further boosting its standing in Southeast Asian affairs
- Like China, Vietnam is held up as an economic success story for North Korea to emulate, but unlike China, it has adopted far less repressive policies
Summit diplomacy has played an increasingly critical role in today’s international relations, both bilateral and multilateral, since the word “summit” was first used – some say by Winston Churchill in the 1950s – to describe a meeting between government leaders. Now, even the choice of venue to host an important summit may have symbolic value and geopolitical implications.
The selection of Vietnam as a venue speaks volumes about the dramatic geopolitical changes in recent decades, as the world witnessed the nation’s journey from American foe to budding US security partner.
The reason Vietnam was picked from the list of possible venues was not just because of the communist state’s neutral stance on the North Korean nuclear issue, and not only because both the US and North Korea have embassies there. Vietnam’s friendly relations with all the key players, including China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, was not the main reason, either.
What is more relevant is that the choice of Hanoi served both Pyongyang’s and Washington’s best interests.
