4 - Joining ASEAN: Political and Strategic Factors

Summary

THE INTERNAL DEBATES

The Seventh CPV National Congress (July 1991) officially proclaimed, “Vietnam wants to be a friend of all members of the world community which strive for peace, national independence, and development.” The Second and Third CPV Central Committee Plenums, which met in January and June 1992 respectively, focused on developing relations with major powers as well as countries in the region. The Third CPV CC Plenum Resolution gave instructions on how to conduct Vietnam-ASEAN relations, “[We should] as an immediate step, accede to the Bali Treaty, take part in ASEAN consultative forums, and actively conduct research on how to expand our relations with ASEAN in the future.” However, immediately after the accession to the Bali Treaty, Hanoi still did not feel ready for ASEAN membership. Responding to a MOFA Southeast Asian and South Pacific Affairs (SEA/SPA) Department report on Vietnam-ASEAN relations which suggested that the Politburo should provide further instructions on the question of ASEAN membership, the Politburo held a meeting in November 1992 and concluded that “more research should be done”.

In February 1993, Hanoi officially stated, “Vietnam is ready to join ASEAN at an appropriate time.” In mid-September 1993, a meeting was convened by Hong Ha, Director of the Commission for External Relation of the CPV Central Committee (CERC), with the participation of representatives from MOFA, the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the National Borders Committee to work on a policy announcement that General Secretary Do Muoi was going to make during his visit to Malaysia in October. The question of ASEAN membership was of course brought up. Transcripts of the meeting revealed that the participants were in favour of joining ASEAN and proposed that Do Muoi should state that “Vietnam is ready to join ASEAN”, thus dropping the “at an appropriate time” phrase. When the visit took place, Do Muoi announced a four-point policy concerning Vietnam-ASEAN relations that stressed, “Vietnam will increase multifaceted cooperation with individual neighbouring countries as well as with ASEAN as a regional organization.” Yet, the sentence of “Vietnam is ready to join ASEAN at an appropriate time” remained unchanged in the four-point policy.