Vietnam and Thailand have upgraded their relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, pledging to deepen economic and security ties at a time of regional economic uncertainty.
The announcement was made on Friday in Hanoi, where Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was on a two-day state visit.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the upgrade was “not only a political statement, representing a symbolic milestone, but also a strategic commitment, affirming a new breakthrough in the content and depth of cooperation,” Radio Free Asia reported. In a Facebook post on Friday, Paetongtarn said that the upgrade “opens a new historic chapter in the relations between our two countries.”
During her visit, the first to Vietnam by a Thai government leader in 11 years, Paetongtarn also held meetings with the country’s three other top leaders: To Lam, the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam, President Luong Cuong, and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man.
With Friday’s upgrade, Thailand has become the 13th nation to establish a CSP with Hanoi, and the fourth in Southeast Asia – part of a rapid series of promotions that has also involved Singapore and Indonesia (March 2025), New Zealand (February 2025), Malaysia (November 2024), France (October 2024), Australia (March 2024), Japan (November 2023), the United States (September 2023), and South Korea (December 2022).
The exact meaning of a CSP is vague, but as is customary, the two nations released a joint statement on Friday in which they committed “to consolidating and further strengthening all aspects of their relationship while respecting international law and each other’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, mutual interest and respective political systems.”
Economics and trade figured prominently in the statement, perhaps unsurprisingly, given the economic uncertainties that both nations have faced since last month’s announcement of harsh tariffs on both nations by U.S. President Donald Trump. The U.S. is the top export destination for Vietnam and Thailand, and both enjoy significant goods trade surpluses with Washington: $123.5 billion in the case of Vietnam, and $45.6 billion in the case of Thailand.
This has put both nations in the crosshairs of Trump’s mercantilist trade team, leading to the imposition of significant import tariffs of 46 percent on Vietnam and 36 percent on Thailand. These have since been postponed until July, and both nations are attempting to negotiate with the Trump administration a significant reduction in the tariffs.
Much of what was contained in the joint statement was aimed, either implicitly or explicitly, at strengthening bilateral economic synergies and reducing their reliance on the U.S. market. In the joint statement, Vietnam and Thailand, the two largest economies in mainland Southeast Asia, pledged to lift bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2030, up from around $20 billion currently. According to Vietnamese government figures cited by RFA, Vietnam was Thailand’s sixth-largest export destination in 2024, while Thailand was Vietnam’s ninth-largest.
The joint statement also detailed what Bangkok and Hanoi have called the “Three Connects” strategy, under which the two nations have “agreed to capitalize on the shifting trends of global production and supply chains to strengthen the connection between the two countries’ supply chains, especially in complementary and mutually beneficial areas, such as agriculture, petrochemical, machinery, electronic parts, and logistics.”
The joint statement also said that the two nations “encouraged businesses in each country to expand investment and engage in long-term operation in the other country’s market” and promised “to create a business-friendly environment to mitigate the impacts of current global trade tensions.”
Regional security was also on the agenda during Paetongtarn’s visit. According to the joint statement, the two nations agreed to boost defense cooperation and to “work together in preventing and combating transnational crimes, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, human smuggling, money laundering,” and “high-tech crimes.”
They also called for the swift adoption of an international Code of Conduct in the disputed South China Sea, where Vietnam is one of four Southeast Asian nations that are challenging China’s expansive maritime claims.