Vivid evidence of foreign policy consistency

Last week, General Secretary To Lam and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the upgrade of the Viet Nam-Malaysia relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership – the higest level between Viet Nam and an ASEAN Member State.

With the above move, Malaysia has become the 9th nation to rise to the top of Viet Nam's diplomatic hierarchy after China, Russia, India, South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Australia, and France.

Also in the past week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the elevation of the Viet Nam-Brazil relations to a Strategic Partnership – the highest level between the two countries and the second highest level in Viet Nam's diplomatic hierarchy.

With this diplomatic strategy, Viet Nam has etablished Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships and Strategic Partnerships with 30 countries around the world, including all permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

One of the key takeaways from the new partnership frameworks is economic content as Vietnamese leaders and Malaysian and Brazilian counterparts recalled the trade goals and reiterated their commitments to strive for higher trade values.

Economic cooperation has been the corner stone of Viet Nam's Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Strategic Partnership frameworks with all major countries and it has been gradually expanded to new fronts such as green economy, innovation, science and technology, digital transformation, green energy among others.

By deepening economic ties, Viet Nam's trade with the rest of the world has increased sharply, from around US$160 billion in 2010 to US$700 billion in 2022 and the figure is projected to reach a new record of US$800 in 2024.

According to the World Trade Organization's latest ranking, Viet Nam is ranked 23rd among the world's top 30 countries and territories with the largest export value

On multilateral aspect, the leaders of Viet Nam, Malaysia and Brazil also pledged to enhance coordination and mutual support at multilateral fora for peace, stability, and prosperous development across the globe.

The consistent pursuance of the foreign policy and the "four nos" defense policy will continue to be the pre-requisite for Viet Nam to consolidate a peaceful environment both in the region and the world and mobilize external resources for national development and international integration, with economic integration as the core./.