Foreign relations of Vietnam
As of September 2025, Vietnam maintains diplomatic relations with all 192 other member states of the UN, as well as with the State of Palestine and Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Since the end of the Vietnam War and the unification of Vietnam, Vietnam's foreign policy has reflected a tension between two choices: "to reject the Western-led world order and oppose Western influence, or to accept the Western-led world order and adapt Western influence." Over time, Vietnam has become more engaged in the international community. Vietnam has shifted from a fierce opponent of the United States to a friendlier relations. Vietnam has for decades has both kept close economic and political ties with China and consistently sought to deny Chinese regional dominance.
History
Monarchial Vietnam
In its early history, Vietnam tried to maintain good relations with its neighbours. From the Hồng Bàng dynasty to many feudal dynasties like the Ngô, Đinh, Anterior Lê, Lý, Trần, Lê, Tây Sơn and Nguyễn, Vietnam's main diplomatic relationships were with neighboring Imperial China, Kingdom of Champa, Khmer Empire, Lan Xang kingdom and Siam. Later trading relationship were established with European countries and Japan.Cold War era and the two Vietnams
Following Japan's surrender, British and Chinese Nationalist forces entered Vietnam to supervise the disarmament of Japanese troops. Following the 1946 Ho–Sainteny Agreement, the communist-led Democratic Republic of Vietnam was recognized as a free state within the French Union. However, total war broke out later that year. The anti-communist State of Vietnam was established in 1949 under the Élysée Accords and recognized as an independent state associated with the French Union.In January 1950, the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union were the first two countries to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the United States and other Western countries recognized the State of Vietnam. The colonial war and the civil war in Vietnam became internationalized and intertwined with the global Cold War. The 1954 Geneva Accords temporarily divided the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
During the Vietnam War, North Vietnam tried to balance relations with its two major allies, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. In 1964, Zhou Enlai, worried about the escalation of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, made an informal agreement with the North. The agreement stipulated that if U.S. and South Vietnamese forces invaded North Vietnam, the Chinese would respond by loaning pilots to the North. During the invasion, Mao Zedong failed to send as many trained pilots as he promised. As a result, the North became more reliant on the Soviet Union for its defense.
By 1977, tension began to grow as Beijing increasingly viewed Vietnam as a potential Soviet instrument to encircle China. Meanwhile, Beijing's increasing support for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge sparked Vietnamese suspicions of China's motives.
Vietnamese-Chinese relations deteriorated significantly after Hanoi instituted a ban in March 1978 on private trade, a move that particularly affected the Sino-Vietnamese sector of the population. Following Vietnam's December 1978 invasion of Cambodia, China launched a retaliatory invasion of Vietnam's northern border region. Faced with severance of Chinese aid and strained international relations, Vietnam established even closer ties with the Soviet Union and its allies in the Comecon member states. Throughout the 1980s, Vietnam received nearly US$3 billion a year in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union and conducted most of its trade with the U.S.S.R. and Comecon countries. Soviet and Eastern bloc economic aid, however, ceased after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
International memberships
In 1951, both the State of Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam applied for United Nations membership. In 1952, the SVN, which would later continue as the Republic of Vietnam, was granted observer status in the UN General Assembly. The DRV and the Republic of South Vietnam gained observer status only in July 1975.The Soviet Union in 1952 vetoed the SVN's admission to full UN membership. In 1957, the General Assembly twice reaffirmed that the RVN was fully qualified for membership and should be admitted, yet both attempts were again vetoed by the Soviet Union. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, unified in 1976, maintained a sole observer mission and was admitted as a full UN member in September 1977.
The State of Vietnam was admitted to several specialized agencies of the United Nations, including the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, and the Universal Postal Union. As the continuator of the State of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam maintained membership in these organizations and later joined the International Civil Aviation Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was not a member of any of these organizations and only joined the WMO in August 1975 and the WHO in October 1975. After the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam substituted for or continued South Vietnam's membership in many organizations, while in other cases it joined as a new member state.
Đổi mới reforms
Vietnam didn't begin to emerge from international isolation until it withdrew its troops from Cambodia in 1989. Within months of the 1991 Paris Agreements, Vietnam established diplomatic and economic relations with Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states and also with most countries of Western Europe and Asia's Far East. China re-established full diplomatic ties with Vietnam in 1991. The two nations concluded a land border demarcation agreement in 1999. In 1995, the US and Vietnam re-established diplomatic ties. United States–Vietnam relations improved in August 1995, when both nations upgraded their liaison offices opened during January 1995 to embassy status, with the United States later opening a consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City, and Vietnam opening a consulate in San Francisco.In 2001, Vietnam signed 16 free trade agreements.
Full diplomatic relations were restored with New Zealand who opened its embassy in Hanoi in 1995, while Vietnam established an embassy in Wellington in 2003. Pakistan reopened its embassy in Hanoi in October 2000. Vietnam also reopened its embassy in Islamabad in December 2005 and trade office in Karachi in November 2005.
In the past decade, Vietnam has recognized the importance of growing global economic interdependence and has made concerted efforts to adjust its foreign relations to reflect the evolving international economic and political situation in Southeast Asia. The country has begun to integrate itself into the regional and global economy by joining international organizations. Vietnam has stepped up its efforts to attract foreign capital from the West and regularize relations with the world financial system. In the 1990s, following the lifting of the US veto on multilateral loans to the country, Vietnam became a member of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Asian Development Bank. The country has expanded trade with its East Asian neighbors as well as with countries in Western Europe and North America. Of particular significance was Vietnam's acceptance into ASEAN in July 1995. Vietnam joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November 1998 and also hosted the ASEAN summit the following month. In 2005, Vietnam attended the inaugural East Asia Summit. Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization in November 2006.
Current issues
In 2011 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, released an official statement about Vietnam's foreign policy and a section of the statement stated: "Vietnam is a friend and reliable partner of all countries in the international community, actively taking part in international and regional cooperation processes. Deepen, stabilize and sustain established international relations. Develop relations with countries and territories in the world, as well as international organizations, while showing: respect for each other's independence; sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-interference in each other's international affairs; non-use or threat of force; settlement of disagreements and disputes by means of peaceful negotiations; mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit."While Vietnam has remained relatively conflict-free since its Cambodia days, tensions have arisen in the past between Vietnam and its neighbors, especially in the case of China since both nations assert claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands - the two archipelagos in a potentially oil-rich area of the South China Sea. Conflicting claims have produced over the years small scale armed altercations in the area. In 1988, more than 70 Vietnamese troops were killed during a confrontation with Chinese forces, when China occupied several islands under Vietnamese control in the Spratly Islands. China's assertion of control over the Spratly Islands and the entire South China Sea has elicited concern from Vietnam and its Southeast Asia neighbors. The territorial border between the two countries is being definitively mapped pursuant to a Land Border Agreement signed in December 1999, and an Agreement on Borders in the Gulf of Tonkin signed in December 2000. Vietnam and Russia declared a strategic partnership in March 2001 during the first visit ever to Hanoi of a Russian head of state, largely as an attempt to counterbalance China's growing profile in Southeast Asia.
Disputes – international: maritime boundary with Cambodia not defined; involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly - Paracel Islands with the People's Republic of China, Malaysia, Philippines, and possibly Brunei; maritime boundary with Thailand resolved in August 1997; maritime boundary dispute with the PRC in the Gulf of Tonkin resolved in 2000; Paracel Islands occupied by the PRC since 1974; offshore islands and sections of boundary with Cambodia are in dispute; agreement on land border with the People's Republic of China was signed in December 1999.
Illicit drugs: minor producer of opium poppy with 21 km2 cultivated in 1999, capable of producing 11 metric tons of opium; probably minor transit point for Southeast Asian heroin destined for the US and Europe; growing opium/heroin addiction; possible small-scale heroin production.
Diplomatic relations
List of countries which Vietnam maintains diplomatic relations with:Bilateral relations
Asia
| Country | Formal relations began | Notes |
 AfghanistanWorks cited* |