Vietnam's ambitions to modernize its military and diversify international partnerships were on full display at the 2024 Vietnam International Defense Expo, an exhibition that concluded with defense enterprises signing 16 contracts worth over $286 million, along with 17 strategic cooperation agreements with international defense firms.
The exhibition, which took place from Dec. 19-22 in Hanoi, featured more than 240 defense industry companies and represented 49 countries.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the expo was “an affirmation of Vietnam's role and contribution in international defense cooperation” and a “symbol of trust, respect and goodwill in cooperation between nations for a world of peace, stability and prosperity.”
Experts noted that the vast number of international companies at the exhibition reflected Vietnam’s long-term approach to diversifying its foreign partners.
"If you look at the list of invited firms and defense firms and companies at the expo, you can see there’s a wide range of companies from many different countries,” said Hanh Nguyen, a research fellow at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies based in Japan.
“This decision reflects Vietnam's long-standing foreign policy approach, which is to strive to build partnerships with every country regardless of their political system or ideology," he added.
Bich Tran, a postdoctoral fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, shared a similar sentiment, explaining to VOA that the presence of Chinese, Russian and Western countries at the expo showed that Vietnam is committed to the principle of diversifying its foreign relations.
“Vietnam has talked about diversifying its arms supplies for many years, but I think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Vietnam to facilitate the process. So with this expo, [Vietnam] has the opportunity to talk with many different partners, to look around to see what will work,” Tran said.
American firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin, French company Airbus, and Chinese state-owned China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) attended the expo.
NORINCO's participation marked the first time for a Chinese company. Concurrently, Vietnam’s general-secretary of the Communist Party, To Lam, met with visiting Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun.
Despite the active participation and discussion between Beijing and Hanoi officials, Nguyen said the expo is unlikely to become a breakthrough point for arms sales between the two countries, noting that Vietnam has concerns over the transparency performance of Chinese military equipment.
Nguyen The Phuong, a doctoral candidate in maritime security at the University of New South Wales, told VOA that “Vietnam will never, ever buy any lethal weapons from China,” adding that Vietnam’s reluctance to buy weapons from China is a “long-standing principle dating back to the ‘70s and '80s.”
Phuong said Vietnam is preparing to advance and upgrade its outdated systems, “focusing on the modernization of the Vietnamese army and maritime defense needs.”
“Vietnam is trying to modernize its navy and air force and trying to turn them into modernized and capable services after 2030. So, there are a lot of things that the Vietnamese military wants to improve from buying more aircraft for its air force, building more warships for its navy, and especially the capability to monitor.”
Contributing to Hanoi’s need to modernize is the potential for conflict in the South China Sea, a geopolitically disputed territory that is both a critical maritime route for global trade and a region rich in resources, including oil, natural gas and fish stock.
On Dec. 10, the South China Morning Post reported that Vietnam is actively building military facilities on several islands and reefs in the Spratly Islands — key territories in the South China Sea.
"Vietnam's military strategy in the South China Sea can be summed up in one word: deterrence. Or more precisely, deterrence by denial," said Phuong, explaining that Vietnam’s decisions at the expo reflect an ambition to increase its coastal military capabilities.
Another takeaway from the expo is Hanoi’s cooperation with the United States.
Speaking at the expo, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Napper said the United States' goal is to ensure that Vietnam "has everything it needs to defend its interests at sea, in the air, on the ground and in cyberspace.”
Tran said this goal demonstrates that the U.S.-Vietnam defense cooperation is shifting from a single arms assistance model to a broader multilateral cooperation framework.
