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By Frank Zeller
HANOI: Vietnam on Wednesday
celebrated a key step in its postwar global reintegration after the
United Nations accepted it for the first time as a nonpermanent
Security Council member from next year.
Its new role will elevate
Vietnam’s international prestige but also force its leaders—who
have been keen on friendly ties with almost all countries—to make
tough choices and take sides in world disputes, observers said.
The world body on Tuesday chose
Vietnam, along with four other newcomers, to sit on the 15-member
council for two years from January 1, meaning Vietnam will assume
the rotating presidency for a month some time next year.
Communist Vietnam joined the
United Nations 30 years ago—two years after it emerged
war-shattered but victorious from what is called here the American
War—and Hanoi first applied for a council seat a decade ago.
Vietnam’s success in being
chosen as the only new Asian country to join the Security Council
comes in the same year the country became the 150th member of the
World Trade Organization.
Taking a council seat “is an
opportunity for Vietnam to improve the prestige and image of a
peace-loving country and make a realistic contribution to the common
struggle of humanity,” said foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
said, “Becoming one of the 15 members of the most important agency
of the largest international organization is a great honor that also
comes along with a heavy responsibility.”
For Vietnam “it is a major
milestone for their diplomatic history,” said David Koh, an
analyst with the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
Vietnam aimed “to play on a
bigger stage, commensurate with their intention to integrate with
the world and to multilateralize their foreign policy,” he said.
Vietnam expert Carl Thayer said
Hanoi will earn respect from other governments—especially in the
53-nation Asia bloc it will speak for—but warned that it “will
also have to make some hard decisions.”
“Up to now Vietnam has been a
member of multilateral organizations that meet annually and which do
not make binding decisions,” said Thayer, a veteran
Vietnam-watcher with the Australian Defense Force Academy.
“Vietnam will have a vote on
the most important issues facing the world.”
Postwar Vietnam has been at pains
to cultivate friendly relations with countries ranging from the
United States to Cuba, North Korea and Iran.
“Vietnam will find that its
foreign policy platitudes of making friends with all countries
difficult to sustain when it is now required to vote on issues,”
Thayer told AFP. “Sitting on the fence is not an option.”
Vietnam will also come under
pressure to contribute troops to future UN peacekeeping missions and
there are suggestions that the country is prepared to make a modest
contribution to such efforts, said Thayer.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia
Khiem, writing in a newspaper this month, lauded the UN for its role
in maintaining world peace and security and pushing for global
disarmament.
Vietnam has fought wars against
China, France and the United States, three of the five permanent
council members, all of whom backed Vietnam’s bid for the seat.
Vietnam has declared its support
for the Kyoto Protocol, the Millennium Goals to fight world poverty,
and UN reform.
On global trade, Vietnam’s UN
officials have stressed that Hanoi backs the need to scrap
rich-country farm subsidies and supports efforts to “conclude the
Doha Development Round negotiations with a real development
package.”
On human-rights issues, Vietnam,
which is often criticized for abuse of dissidents, is seen as likely
to take the position of “noninterference in the internal
affairs” of other countries.
Thayer said that Vietnam may
become “a focal point for Third-World states who share similar
concerns about a number of issues such as globalization and great
power interference.”
--AFP
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