| Summary/Abstract |
Vietnam has become an important space for Sino-US strategic competition. Hanoi is reluctant to choose a side, however. The main objectives of its foreign policy have been to avoid conflict, develop the domestic economy and defend the homeland. To advance these goals, Vietnam has maintained a strategy of independence, autonomy, openness and multilateralisation, diminishing the role of communist ideology, shifting from a continental to a maritime orientation, and enhancing its international status. A thorough understanding of these developments could enable the United States and other democratic countries to build closer ties with Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.
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