During his official visit to Belgium, To Lam delivered a policy speech at the Egmont Institute in Brussels on October 23 local time. The speech was titled "Turning vision into action: From political resolve to a model of cooperation." Diplomats, scholars and researchers attended.
To Lam said that after four decades of reforms, Vietnam had risen from a country devastated by war and subject to isolation and embargoes to one of the European Union's leading trade and investment partners in Southeast Asia. He said countries with different political systems and levels of development can overcome differences through dialogue, mutually beneficial cooperation and respect for international law.
Three main messages
To Lam said the world is undergoing a strategic shift that threatens fragmentation but also creates opportunities; Vietnam and the EU increasingly share a view of values and strategic autonomy; and Vietnam-EU relations need breakthrough directions, with Vietnam-Belgium relations as their main driver and clearest example.
Vietnam's common strategic question with the EU is how to protect national independence while helping build a fair, open international order based on law. Vietnam's action principle is confidence, self-reliance, reliance on its own strength, resilience and national pride. International cooperation, To Lam said, creates more room for development.
Vietnam is pursuing two centenary goals: becoming a developing country with modern industry by 2030 and a developed, high-income country by 2045. It plans to move from growth based on natural resources and cheap labour to a knowledge-, innovation-, digital- and green-transition-based model centred on people. Its foreign policy remains independent, multilateral and diversified.
The challenges include the middle-income trap, pressure to raise productivity and the sensitivity of an open economy to geo-economic shocks. Vietnam needs strategic, fair, balanced and effective support from international partners, especially the EU.
Vietnam's relations with the EU and Belgium
The EU has special structural importance for Vietnam and was among the first strategic partners to accompany its reforms. Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian country with the EU's most comprehensive cooperation network and has strategic and comprehensive partnerships with 11 EU member states.
To Lam said cooperation with the EU is linked to Vietnam's policy of multilateralism, diversification and self-reliant development. He thanked the EU and its member states for decades of equal and valuable cooperation and support.
The two sides share four strategic areas: strategic autonomy and Vietnam's self-reliance; a positive view of CBAM, EUDR and other green standards; fair, transparent and mutually beneficial free trade and economic security; and international law and maritime security under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Vietnam proposed closer trade and investment ties, secure supply chains, stronger cybersecurity and maritime security cooperation, and EU-Vietnam-ASEAN coordination on a rules-based regional security architecture. It also asked the EU for technical help with CBAM and EUDR and encouraged European funds to invest in strategic infrastructure and logistics in Vietnam.
Vietnam proposed connecting the two sides' technology ecosystems, with a focus on Belgium and IMEC, a leading semiconductor research centre. It also proposed joint research centres for semiconductors, responsible AI and biotechnology, plus links between startup networks.
Cooperation on the green and just energy transitions should involve private companies and local authorities, especially in addressing climate change in the Mekong Delta. Vietnam also proposed a lasting knowledge alliance between Belgian and Vietnamese universities and highlighted the Vietnamese community in Belgium and Europe as a cultural bridge.
As a Southeast Asian country with comprehensive EU cooperation and as coordinator of ASEAN-EU relations, Vietnam is ready to act as a testing ground and strategic bridge. It wants ASEAN-EU cooperation to become a model interregional partnership that contributes to peace and prosperity in both continents.
To Lam said Vietnam aims to build a prosperous country, a green and modern economy and a humane society. He said European policymakers and scholars should see Vietnam as a reliable partner and strategic link between Asia and Europe, with relations that can become an economic, knowledge and technology corridor linking Hanoi and Brussels.
To Lam said the common basis for the new era was unity in diversity and moving forward together while respecting differences, opening a new chapter of peace and prosperity for both continents.
Sources: Dân Trí
