Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian country at this critical moment to be facing a major challenge as it attempts to juggle the three great powers -- China, Russia, and the US -- simultaneously. It is as if Hanoi is keeping a dagger, a bomb, and a gun in perpetual mid-air flight to ensure the tripartite relations will not crash along the way. It is bamboo diplomacy Vietnamese style, at its very best in keeping these extraordinary allies and friends at bay. In recent years, the bamboo policy description has been widely used due to the country's distinctive diplomacy.
Thailand and the Philippines, for instance, only require to deal intensely with the US-China competition. To them, the ties with Russia are a sideshow. They are important of course, but not at the same level as Vietnam's. Within the region, the Russia-Vietnam alliance is rock solid -- even the ties and sentiments of other Indochinese countries, such as Cambodia and Laos, are not quite as unwavering. In particular, Phnom Penh's attitude towards Moscow has been shifting in ways that nobody expected. Cambodia jumped the high fence without looking back over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the rest of the world shuns Russia, Vietnam is still grateful to Moscow for assisting in its post-war reconstruction.
