Why hasn’t Vietnam congratulated Joe Biden?

Many countries and heads of state, international and regional leaders in Asia recently exchanged congratulations to Joe Biden after the American media announced him to win the election and become president-elect in the 2020 White House race elections. .

Among these countries, recently in Europe, leaders from England, Germany, France, in Asia, congratulated the leaders of Japan, South Korea and on November 13, the Chinese government, through their statements. The Foreign Office staff also congratulated Mr. Joe Biden, while many transactions were conducted by direct phone.

On 12 November 2020, observers of Vietnam-US relations, news and politics from Vietnam and abroad shared their comments on Vietnam with BBC News in Vietnamese.

“The mainstream media already know well and internationally they already know that the Vietnamese government is a government that can be said to be very cautious in foreign relations, especially a very sensitive issue today. in the relationship with the United States that has to do with geopolitics, so that economic cooperation and the relationship between the two countries in recent years has been improving more and more ”, from the Institute of Politics, Law and Development under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, “Associate Professor Hoang Ngoc Giao told the BBC at a panel discussion on Thursday, December 11, 2020.

“And the traditions of the Vietnamese leaders are the same, for the newly elected countries, only when there are official statements about the head of state of that country, the Vietnamese leaders can congratulate. .

So I do not consider the phenomenon while some foreign leaders congratulated Mr. Joe Biden, but the Vietnamese leaders have not shown anything, which is completely consistent with past Vietnam practice. in relations with other countries, when there is a new head of state and this is also normal.

“And I support the foreign policy and the reaction of Vietnamese leaders to congratulate the current president-elect, in my opinion, very true.”

Evaluating the reaction of some other countries of the same gender in some parts of the world this time, Hoang Ngoc Giao added:

“Donald Trump’s foreign policy, in my opinion, is fair, but it is not certain that it will satisfy the leaders of some countries, especially allies … Mr. Donald Trump is fair, affectionate the need is to have a contribution to the NATO budget, contribute more than 2% of total GDP, do not let the US subsidize forever, which is sure to personally influence a whole number. European players will probably disagree.

“And even Japan and South Korea might not be very happy, which is one thing I noticed. The other thing is that Mr. Trump has taken a cost saving approach and cut back, maybe this creates dissatisfaction and maybe the leaders of Europe or Japan congratulate Mr. Biden.

“But I think congratulations, I do not read the content of the congratulations, but in terms of form there are also cases of writing on Twitter, or expressed in a welcoming diplomatic or community way. a little bit, what I see there, and the official state recognition of those countries, I think they also need to be cautious, but it’s impossible to rush, ”Associate Professor Hoang Ngoc said. Giao told the BBC on Thursday from Hanoi.

From the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, associate professor Jonathan London, a sociologist and political researcher, told the BBC on 11/12.

“I was not very surprised, as Mr. Hoang Ngoc Giao said it was a confidential file, so it was not surprising that Vietnam waited.

“Mr. Xi Jinping, the leader of China, has not said anything, Mr. Putin, the leader of Russia, has not said anything, Mr. Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, has not said anything.

“Those three people also have common traits; and all countries with democratic policies congratulate Mr. Biden.”

“Except for Mexico, since Mexico has a paragraph of the Constitution that says that an official result can be congratulated.

“That is understandable, I see that in the world, leaders of countries that have democracies have clearly seen the results of the elections …

I also understand your opinion that it is necessary to have an official result to declare who won the election.

“But what I want to emphasize here is that in the American tradition, what is happening in the United States is very unusual.

“And it has caused a lot of concern around the world about the beliefs and strength of American democracy,” said academic Jonathan London.

The countries that are preparing to congratulate the election of the president are also different, but observing is not strange, because we see Russia …, Brazil and Vietnam continue to follow the criteria of waiting for the final result and the This shows a lack of preparation in diplomacy.

“If you read the Vietnamese newspaper you will see, although you do not congratulate Joe Biden, but Tuoi Tre Newspaper, it is a Vietnamese newspaper that has put the headline here that no matter who the president of the United States is, the relationship between Vietnam and the United States will be no switch to.

“So we have to tell ourselves that the presidential term in the United States is a term in which a lifetime, or two generations, four years or eight years, still has to follow the policy of the two parties. Democrat and Republican.

So the congratulation or not depends entirely on the decision of the heads of state, but based on when the congratulation is made and the congratulatory attitude of each country, we can see the direction of capturing and preparing US diplomacy at times. for countries preparing for a long-term diplomatic trend, for which they have prepared such attitudes. “

On this occasion, Texas-based blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh shared her feelings about some of the things she called unusual during the 2020 U.S. elections:

“I would like some opinion here on the idea that more than 71 million people vote for Donald Trump, there is no denying that more than 76 million people voted for Joe Biden and this year’s election must that is unusual, because the number of voters in the United States is beyond imagination.

“And it is also the success of activists, Trump supporters who decide to support, Biden supporters or a change of America as well, but there is a ratio that seems. Through which we can also see that young people are going to vote. , especially college campus data that reflects the fact that in America after 4 years, after many changes, after many trends that the mainstream media is hacked, or being labeled as fake news, here we have to frankly say that there is no media that report fake news, which may depend on the opinion of the media.The truth is according to the audience, the audience approaches and depends on the reader’s point of view.

“So because I am an observer and I do not want to lean anywhere, but I have the same values: the Constitutional Republic and secondly the American electoral system is the model of many countries and both are now under attack.

“If people used to have confidence in the main American media, today with so-called fake news, people no longer have faith in reputable news agencies, for example. The belief that the American electoral system is superior, even many countries see it as a model, in the end.

“There is an opinion that the Vietnamese press does not do that, but I observe the press every day, when I read reports of allegations of electoral fraud, here and there there are fraud, but the Vietnam newspapers do not do the following is to update all decisions, like the Michigan court ruling, or the Wisconsin court ruling, or the decision without updating the conditions, and about state elections, it gives people an incomplete picture.

“And when you look at an incomplete picture, you see that in Vietnam people are doubting the authenticity of the electoral system, that is what matters to me because it affects the People approach the values ​​of freedom, democracy, all three separatist powers and the Constitutional Republic “.

Returning to the reaction of the Vietnamese government after the US media announced that Joe Biden would become president-elect, a former Vietnamese diplomatic official from Hanoi, commented Ambassador Dr. Dinh Hoang Thang. Comment with the BBC also on Thursday:

“In my opinion, the response from Vietnam has not yet congratulated Joe Biden on his election. This could be for three reasons:

“One, it is because of the care and respect for orthodoxy. It is cautious that there is a reason, because although the” winning door “of Donald Trump is narrow, but in recent days the history of the litigation seems to be tense again. The claim Trump’s decision to sue until the end does not know the outcome.After Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement, Vietnam is more inclined to a wait position.

“Second, this is an internal US matter. Immediately after Election Day, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said that whoever is president will support the process of developing relations with Vietnam, so Vietnam will not it seems to be. ” Hurry to avoid missing a glitch.

“And thirdly, in my opinion, Vietnam wants to maintain international practice. The ASEAN countries, Brazil … and Russia have not expressed their attitude. Perhaps Vietnam awaits US law and procedures, awaiting the results of the count. of votes “. in 50 states and the results of the electoral votes, “Dr. Dinh Hoang Thang, former Vietnam ambassador to the Netherlands, is currently the Media Director of the Institute for Development Studies (VIDS), make an opinion.