{"id":41119,"date":"2026-01-29T12:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=41119"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:34:12","slug":"vietnam-and-eu-upgrade-ties-as-eu-chief-visits-hanoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/vietnam-and-eu-upgrade-ties-as-eu-chief-visits-hanoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam and EU upgrade ties as EU chief visits Hanoi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vietnam and the EU upgraded diplomatic ties on Thursday, committing to deeper cooperation on trade, technology and security during a visit to Hanoi by European Council President Antonio Costa.<\/p>\n

“We are elevating our relationship to the highest level, a comprehensive strategic partnership,” Costa said at a press briefing.<\/p>\n

The upgrade reflects the “depth and breadth” of European Union-Vietnamese cooperation, he said, adding: “We can do much more in trade, in green energy, in development economics, in security and defence.”<\/p>\n

The agreement comes less than a week after Vietnam’s Communist Party reaffirmed General Secretary To Lam as the country’s top leader, backing his vision for sweeping growth-oriented change.<\/p>\n

Vietnam and the EU signed a free-trade deal in 2019, with bilateral exchange growing by around 40 percent since then.<\/p>\n

But Hanoi’s ballooning surplus with the bloc has rankled European leaders who have called for the removal of non-tariff barriers on EU products such as automobiles.<\/p>\n

Vietnam has emerged as a regional economic bright spot, clocking eight percent growth last year despite new 20 percent tariffs from its largest export market, the United States.<\/p>\n

Faced with deepening trade uncertainty, Vietnam is on the hunt for new markets beyond top trading partners, the United States and China.<\/p>\n

At its twice-a-decade leadership conclave last week, the party elevated foreign affairs to a “core” national function, alongside national defence and internal security.<\/p>\n

Upgrading ties with the EU is part of Hanoi’s effort “to diversify its export market beyond the US”, said Khang Vu, a Vietnam expert and visiting scholar at Boston College.<\/p>\n

“Vietnam wants to maintain an open international environment for trade, and the EU can help,” he added.<\/p>\n

Hanoi also has comprehensive strategic partnerships with China, Russia and the United States.<\/p>\n

It has agreed similar partnerships with nearly a dozen countries since 2022, seeking to tap their markets, knowledge and technology as it pursues a bigger international role.<\/p>\n

Vietnam has long practiced what its leaders term “bamboo diplomacy”, looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vietnam and the EU upgraded diplomatic ties on Thursday, committing to deeper cooperation on trade, technology and security during a visit to Hanoi by European Council President Antonio Costa. “We are elevating our relationship to the highest level, a comprehensive strategic partnership,” Costa said at a press briefing. The upgrade reflects the “depth and breadth” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41121,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41119\/revisions\/41121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}