yuè nán越南hé和dōng nán yà东南亚guó jiā国家jiā qiáng加强hé zuò合作yìng duì应对zhōng guó中国tiǎo zhàn挑战
Recently, Vietnam's relationships with Singapore and Indonesia have become closer, and they have upgraded their ties to 'comprehensive strategic partnerships.'
This means they will cooperate in more areas, such as the economy and maritime security.
Vietnam is doing this in hopes of becoming good friends with more countries, without having to choose sides between the US and China.
Vietnam and Indonesia have also agreed to jointly protect peace and security in the South China Sea, supporting peaceful methods to resolve disputes.
Indonesia and Vietnam are also preparing to sign an agreement on maritime boundaries to reduce conflicts between fishermen of the two countries.
Besides security cooperation, they also want to strengthen economic cooperation, such as removing trade barriers to improve business between the two countries.
Singapore and Vietnam are also cooperating in digital economy and green economy sectors.
Through these collaborations, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries hope to reduce their economic dependence on China and protect their own economic security.
In this way, they can have more options and autonomy when facing great power competition.