Trong’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ in posthumous perspective

As a rule, the US secretary of state does not attend the funeral of the general secretary of a Communist party.

Yet that is exactly what Washington’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, had planned to do for the last rites of Nguyen Phu Trong, the longtime leader of Vietnam, who died in office on July 19, 2024, aged 80. Ultimately, Blinken couldn’t make it to the funeral, but he did visit Hanoi a day later.

There, he paid his respects to the Vietnamese government and to the family of Trong, whose 13-year rule saw the country make enormous strides, including a drastic decline in the nation’s poverty rate – from 14% of the population in 2010 to 4% in 2022.

The passing of leaders provides an opportunity to draw a balance of their performance in office, to examine how the country did in that period, and what the way forward looks like. In that regard, Trong can be proud of his record – Vietnam has made much economic and social progress and looks set to continue along that route.

Moreover, the legacy of Trong’s set of foreign policy principles – known as “bamboo diplomacy” – serves as a model for smaller states as they navigate the complexities of shifting geopolitics and growing tensions between the US and China.

Vietnam’s success story

Vietnam was already on an upward trajectory when Trong came to power in 2011 as the most powerful figure in the country’s ruling Communist Party.

After decades of stagnation and abject poverty, the opening up of Vietnam’s economy under the “Doi Moi” – or renovation – reforms of 1986 led to what the World Bank refers to as a “development success story.”

The reforms helped Vietnam transition from being one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income nation over a 40-year period.

Under