Vietnam has upgraded its diplomatic relations with Indonesia to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), ahead of a similar upgrade with Singapore later this week.
The elevation took place yesterday at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, where To Lam, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), was on a state visit marking the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
According to a report in the state-run Vietnam News, Lam and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto “expressed satisfaction” with how their bilateral relationship has developed since the establishment of their Strategic Partnership in 2013, and agreed to develop economic and defense relations.
“We have agreed in our meeting that we want to enhance our relations, our cooperation. We want to upgrade our relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership,” Prabowo told a news conference after his meeting with Lam. “We truly want to strengthen and cooperate in almost all fields.”
As per Vietnam News, Lam said that Vietnam “highly valued and prioritized its relationship with Indonesia, recognizing the country’s key role in the region.”
The two leaders “agreed to strengthen collaboration in various key areas, including fisheries, the digital economy, green technologies, and emerging high-tech industries,” the Indonesian state news agency Bernama reported. In the area of defense, the two nations “committed to further deepening ties, with plans for joint military exercises, officer exchanges, enhanced training programmes, and joint patrols.” Prabowo said that he will soon make a return visit to Hanoi, where the two sides hope to sign an agreement “aimed at resolving longstanding issues” related to the two nations’ exclusive economic zones.
Lam and Prabowo also agreed to increase bilateral trade to $18 billion by 2028, up from $16.7 billion in 2024. Prabowo added that the two nations “share a common goal and vision: to become a developed nation by 2045.”
After three days in Indonesia, Lam departed today for Singapore, where he will remain until March 13. In an interview with Vietnam News, Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Tran Phuoc Anh said that “during this visit, their bilateral relationship is expected to be elevated to the highest level – a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.”
He said that the CSP with Singapore would create a “political foundation for propelling the already strong Viet Nam-Singapore partnership to new heights, making it even more substantive and profound.”
Indonesia and Singapore are the 11th and 12th nations to establish CSPs with Vietnam, part of a concerted expansion of Vietnam’s diplomatic partnerships at a time of growing global turbulence and uncertainty. Singapore also established a Strategic Partnership with Vietnam in 2013.
Vietnam established CSPs with China (2008), Russia (2012), India (2016), South Korea (2022), the United States (2023), and Japan (2023). Australia and France then joined the club in March and October of last year, respectively. Malaysia announced a CSP upgrade in November, followed by New Zealand in late February. Thailand is also reportedly in talks to establish a CSP with Vietnam.
Nine of these promotions have happened over the past years, as the previously exclusive club of CSPs has been flung open to nearly all of Vietnam’s closest economic and security partners. This has been enabled by the usefully vague and flexible nature of the CSP designation, which has few firm criteria. This rapid expansion is Vietnam’s apparent hedge against the growing geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty of the current moment. In this more constrained and challenging world, Hanoi clearly believes that its security lies in doubling down on the omnidirectional and diversified foreign policy that it has pursued since the end of the Cold War.