Thayer Consultancy

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Background Briefing: Vietnam: Human Rights and Australia Carlyle A. Thayer July 2, 2012

[client name deleted] Q1. Australia is now giving more weight to human rights issues in Vietnam, though details remain sketchy. Though Australia has had several human rights dialogues with Vietnam it tend to remain quiet when bloggers or others are arrested. So what, if anything, may come of this? The United States has mentioned human rights are central to progress in relations. What kind of bargaining chips does Australia have? ANSWER: I havent been able to detect a significant increase in diplomatic activity by Australia on human rights in Vietnam. If there is new interest there are three possible sources: a new foreign minister, Bob Carr; pressure from the VietnameseAustralian community (with the Governments eye on federal elections); and U.S. lobbying. See excerpts from a paper I delivered in Hanoi late last year included below. Human rights have been confined to formal dialogues and technical assistance. Australia has been largely silent on the arrest of bloggers in general, but in the past has applied diplomatic pressure when Australian citizens are involved. Q2. Is this simply an appeasement of the Vietnamese community in Australia? Whilst groups in say, Cabramatta are still against the regime here there seems to be little of the strong political organising you'd see in California (where the Overseas Vietnamese community is much larger). ANSWER: As for the Vietnamese-Australian community, on June 21, Senator Ron Boswell submitted a petition bearing 55,000 signatures to Federal Parliament. The petition called on the Government to push Vietnam harder on human rights. Labor Senator Mark Furner said the Government would support a coalition motion in Parliament. I am not sure of the status of this as I was overseas. Q3. What interest does Australia have in pushing human rights in Vietnam? ANSWER: Australia as a middle power likes to see itself as a good international citizen and thus supports human right issues in Vietnam and other countries as a matter of course. Human rights forms a part of the bilateral comprehensive partnership between Australia and Vietnam. Human rights dialogue. Australia and Vietnam have held regular human rights talks since 2002. Australia and Vietnam interact on human rights issues. Australia initiated

2 a technical cooperation program in 2006. Under the auspices of this program AusAID has organized seminars and training courses on human rights issues involving Australian institutions with human rights expertise and the Vietnam Womens Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice. Australia also sponsored a human rights course at the elite Ho Chi Minh Political Academy in Hanoi. Many of these programs are funded under the Human Rights Small Grants Scheme. Australia has also opened links between relevant agencies of the two governments. In December 2010, for example, AusAID and Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs sponsored a joint seminar on international conventions on human rights and implementation mechanisms in Hanoi. Australia also has assisted in issuing and revising several laws relating to the protection of human rights. In February 2011 Australia and Vietnam conducted their 8th bilateral human rights dialogue. Australia remains concerned at the imprisonment of people for the peaceful expression of their political, religious or other beliefs and has communicated these concerns to the Vietnamese government at this dialogue [From: Carlyle A. Thayer, The Australia-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership, Paper to "Beyond East-West dialogues: Implications for Research and Knowledge Production, 3rd International Conference on Engaging with Vietnam, cosponsored by Monash University; International Studies Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University; Australian Embassy in Vietnam; and Vietnam Airlines, Hanoi, December 4-5, 2011]. Q4. Is there anything to be said for behind-the-scenes power versus more public complaints, in this context? Some argue the hardliners almost try to invite US human rights attacks at times. ANSWER: It was Alexander Downer who said that Australia would not pursue megaphone diplomacy with Vietnam on human rights. My assessment is that unless Australian citizens are directly involved, Australia plays a very low key role. Australia is probably more effective behind the scenes as in the past it has secured the release of Vietnamese-Australian who have run afoul of the authorities. I wrote the following recently:
Vietnam is internally divided about how to manage relations with China and the United States. There are a number of party ideologues who still believe the U.S. is promoting the plot of peaceful evolution to overturn Vietnams socialist regime. These ideological concerns have surfaced from time to time in remarks directed at the Peace Corps and American universities wishing to operate in Vietnam. The conservatives maintain that Vietnam can manage its sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea without aligning with the United States. The conservative also point to an improvement in relations with China since the October 2011 visit to Beijing by party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong. Trongs visit followed the dispatch of two special envoys in January and June. During Trongs visit China and Vietnam reached agreement on Guidelines on Fundamental Principles to Resolve Maritime Disputes. Since then all has been quiet in the East Sea, the Vietnamese term for the South China Sea. Other members of the Vietnam Communist Party are committed to the policy adopted by the eleventh party congress in early 2011 of proactively integrating with the world. This policy is designed to promote Vietnams multifaceted engagement with all the major powers including the United States. Defense cooperation is one aspect of proactive integration. Secretary Panettas visit will be judged a success if it meets two competing objectives. First, increased U.S.-Vietnam defense cooperation must not trigger a conservative backlash over fears that Vietnam is being drawn into an anti-China containment policy. Second, increased defense cooperation must not raise unrealistic expectations among Vietnamese officials who are promoting proactive integration.

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Achieving these twin objectives will be no easy task. Vietnamese party conservatives are only too willing to play on the human rights issue to impede the development of closer defense relations with the United States [Source: Carlyle A. Thayer, Hanoi and the Pentagon: A Budding Courtship, United States Naval Institute, June 11, 2012. http://news.usni.org/news-analysis/hanoi-and-pentagonbudding-courtship].

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, Vietnam: Human Rights and Australia, Thayer Consultancy Background Brief, July 2, 2012.