Canada and Vietnam upgrade ties to strategic partnership during state visit
The new partnership aims to deepen cooperation on energy, agriculture and defence as both countries seek to diversify trade and reduce reliance on the United States.
OTTAWA — Vietnamese President To Lam has upgraded ties with Canada to a strategic partnership during his one-day state visit to Ottawa.
"In a volatile world, trust, responsibility and shared interests in and of themselves are strategic values," Lam said Thursday through an interpreter in an address on Parliament Hill.
Lam is the first Vietnamese president ever to visit Canada and leads the country's communist party, making him its most powerful person.
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In a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, the prime minister commended Lam for his leadership of a middle power and said the relationship has evolved quickly since a 2017 pact.
"There will be good news for those who want to travel directly from Canada to Vietnam and back," Carney said, possibly suggesting direct commercial flights.
The new strategic partnership signifies deeper co-operation on longer-term goals, said Vina Nadjibulla, co-founder of the Centre for Strategic Statecraft, a geopolitics think tank.
"We're in a moment where the relationship can go to a new level, and there's definitely political desire on both sides."
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the renewed partnership will involve energy, agriculture, defence co-operation and people-to-people ties.
"As the global economy changes, our response is not to turn inward. It is to build partnerships," she said.
Lam said those partnerships should span Canadian technology, particularly in agriculture, clean energy and education.
"We need to maintain regular exchanges and contacts, especially at the high level at an early stage, and in a frank manner, on the shifts that may affect the interests of each side," he said.
Lam called for "tangible action programs with clearcut priorities" that will help eliminate "bottlenecks."
Global Affairs Canada's online profile of Vietnam calls it Canada's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, with two-way merchandise trade amounting to more than $20 billion last year.
Vietnam is also a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a bloc with which Canada is negotiating a free-trade agreement.
Carney is hoping to sign that trade agreement on a planned November visit to the Philippines, which might include a stop in Vietnam.
Nadjibulla said Vietnam has a huge trade surplus with multiple countries, including Canada, in part because U.S. President Donald Trump used his first term to promote trade with Asian nations other than China.
"We import a lot from Vietnam and we sell very little, relatively speaking," she said, arguing Canadian businesses have not seized opportunities in this country of 100 million people.
Vietnam is now facing hefty American tariffs and is working on a bilateral agreement with Washington while trying to diversify its trade beyond the U.S.
"This is where Canada and Vietnam are aligned. We're both trying to diversify our supply chains (and) reduce overreliance on the U.S.," Nadjibulla said.
Vietnam is also at the forefront of American efforts to weed out forced labour from supply chains, especially supply chains that could be linked to Uyghur slave labour in China's Xinjiang region.
Canada's former corporate ombudsperson raised similar concerns about running shoes produced in Vietnam, warning they might include cotton derived from slave labour.
Beijing calls the Trump administration's claims about slave labour unfounded and says they're aimed at undercutting China's economic growth.
Vietnam has said it takes Washington's concerns seriously.
This year, Vietnam holds the rotating chairmanship of the Pacific Rim trade bloc known as CPTPP, which brings together multiple countries including Canada.
Lam has been supportive of Carney's fledgling initiative to have the European Union work more with the CPTPP bloc so that middle powers can band together against coercive policies.
"It has made the relationship even more significant this year, because of that international agenda," Nadjibulla said.
Lam reflected on Canada's history of aid and refugee resettlement in his speech, saying his country cherishes independence while seeking peaceful relations with competing powers.
He called Canada a "vast, beautiful country that is brimming with vitality."
With files from BNN Bloomberg and The Globe and Mail