Vietnam - France Relations: From strategic framework to a qualitative upgrade
WVR - Over more than half a century, Vietnam-France relations have been continuously strengthened, elevated, and expanded, from establishing diplomatic relations, normalizing post-war relations to Strategic Partnership and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Along with frequent high-level visits and contacts, bilateral cooperation is increasingly expanding in many fields, reflecting the importance both countries place on each other's roles and positions.
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| A corner of the French Embassy in Hanoi. (Photo: Ngoc Anh) |
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the invitation of the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, General Secretary, President To Lam, along with his spouse Ngo Phuong Ly and a high-level Vietnamese delegation, pay an official visit to the French Republic and attend the Space Summit in Paris, France.
The visit takes place as the two countries' relations are facing new opportunities to deepen cooperation from economy, trade, defense-security to science, technology, and strategic fields. While the 2024 visit marked the upgrade of relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, this visit can be seen as an important opportunity to bring that framework into deeper, more substantive, and effective dimensions.
The issue now is not merely which fields the two countries can expand cooperation in, but how the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership can create new driving forces for each country's development while contributing practically to peace, stability, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
Over half a century of cultivation
Reviewing over 50 years of diplomatic relations and more than 10 years of Strategic Partnership, Vietnam-France relations are increasingly deepening, built and consolidated on the foundation of cooperative achievements since 1973, along with shared interests and a common vision in upholding the United Nations Charter and international law.
From the milestone of establishing diplomatic relations in 1973, Vietnam-France relations have undergone many developments, overcoming historical ups and downs to gradually expand and elevate. The two countries established a Strategic Partnership in 2013 and upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2024, making France the first European Union (EU) member state to establish such a framework with Vietnam.
Thus, Vietnam-France relations today are not only shaped by bilateral interests but also open up space for the two countries to complement each other on issues of regional and international significance.
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a significant political, economic, and technological center of Europe, with interests and presence in the Indo-Pacific region, France has strengths deemed suitable for Vietnam's international integration needs and orientations.
Conversely, Vietnam, with its central position in Southeast Asia, its increasingly elevated role in ASEAN, and a wide network of partnerships, can become a bridge for France to enhance its presence and deeper cooperation in the region. Vietnam's independent, self-reliant, multilateral, and diversified foreign policy also creates intersections with France's emphasis on multilateralism, international law, and the role of international institutions in addressing regional and global issues.
These similarities form a political foundation, considered a crucial strategy for Vietnam-France relations to continue developing stably and sustainably. In the context of many fluctuations in the international and regional environment, the alignment of interests and vision further facilitates the two countries to expand cooperation not only bilaterally but also to contribute to peace, stability, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
From framework upgrade to substantive cooperation
The declaration to upgrade relations in 2024 significantly expanded the cooperation space between Vietnam and France, from political-diplomatic, defense-security, economic-trade to science-technology, innovation, energy, and strategic fields such as aviation, space, and marine economy.
On the foundation of increasingly consolidated political trust, the two countries maintain regular high-level exchanges and contacts, while coordinating at multilateral forums, sharing views on peace, security, and respect for international law. Economic cooperation is showing positive movements, with bilateral trade turnover in 2024 reaching over 5.4 billion USD, an increase of nearly 13% compared to the previous year.
Both sides continue to effectively exploit the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), while Vietnam expects France's completion of the ratification of the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) to create additional momentum for attracting high-quality investment flows, especially from French enterprises with technological capabilities and management experience.
Notably, economic relations are gradually shifting from expanding trade to cooperation in fields associated with Vietnam's new growth drivers. Science-technology, innovation, energy transition, transportation infrastructure, aviation-space, and healthcare are increasingly becoming cooperation pillars of mutual interest.
In the energy sector, France continues to play a role in promoting commitments under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), while urban transportation projects in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City demonstrate that there is still significant room for cooperation in infrastructure and sustainable development.
This is also where the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework begins to show its substantive value: not only creating additional momentum for bilateral cooperation but also opening up the possibility of connecting France's technological, financial, and experiential strengths with Vietnam's new development priorities.
Promoting cooperation in high-quality human resource training, scientific research, innovation, and digital transformation is even more meaningful as Vietnam places science, technology, and innovation at the core of its development drive.
| If 2024 marks the framework upgrade, 2025 lays the foundation for implementation mechanisms, then 2026 promises to be a crucial time for the two countries to shift more strongly from commitments to specific results, thereby demonstrating the vitality of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. |
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| Inside a train station in France. (Source: Getty Images) |
New drivers of bilateral relations
It can be seen that Vietnam-France relations are receiving strong support from three main drivers.
First, Vietnam's new development needs.
With a relatively stable bilateral trade foundation and over 700 French investment projects in Vietnam with a total capital of about 4 billion USD, Vietnam-France economic relations are facing the requirement to shift from expanding scale to enhancing technological content and added value. Vietnam's new development needs are thus creating a new type of cooperation with France, where the focus is not only on attracting external resources but also on enhancing the internal capacity of the economy.
Second, the complementarity between France's strengths and Vietnam's development needs.
In bilateral exchanges in 2025, Vietnam and France identified several priority areas such as infrastructure, transportation, renewable and green energy, science-technology, innovation, aviation, and high-quality human resource training, especially for the semiconductor industry.
Notably, the scope for cooperation can also expand into fields associated with Vietnam's position and advantages in the region, such as maritime transport and logistics, aviation-space cooperation.
If trade is the foundation of Vietnam-France economic relations, then technology and innovation can become new drivers of relations in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership phase. The intersection between Vietnam's development needs and France's strengths is seen as opening up a new layer of cooperation.
Third, efforts to create development capacity.
In the new era, as Vietnam aims for rapid growth linked with energy transition, digital transformation, modern infrastructure development, and mastering high technology, Vietnam-France relations have the potential to shift from a “trade exchange” model to a co-creation development capacity model.
Therefore, Vietnam-France economic relations should not only be measured by trade turnover or the number of investment projects but increasingly need to be viewed through the lens of the ability to create technology, production capacity, human resources, and an innovation ecosystem. The value of cooperation lies not only in the capital or goods exchanged but also in the ability to help Vietnam enhance technological capabilities, increase added value, and participate more deeply in regional and global value chains.
This could be the clearest point of “qualitative upgrade” in Vietnam-France relations: from expanding existing cooperation fields to jointly creating new capacities to serve long-term development goals. If concretized in cooperation programs and projects, this shift will help the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework between the two countries not only be reflected in the scope of the relationship framework but also create more substantive values for each side's development process.
Therefore, the visit is expected to yield specific results to turn this “qualitative upgrade” into substantive values.
With the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework established, the next measure of Vietnam-France relations will no longer be how many additional fields the two countries can cooperate in, but how much new value these collaborations create for each country's development and for connectivity not only in Vietnam-France relations but also in ASEAN-Europe cooperation.
