http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2009/11/091118_france_vietnam_ties.shtml
A Long-standing History:
France’s relationship with Vietnam is both long and complex.
Long, because one could argue that Franco-Vietnamese relations begun as early as the 17th century, with the mission of the renowned Jesuit scholar Alexandre de Rhodes, who took it upon himself to publish the first Portuguese-Latin-Vietnamese dictionary. This dictionary later served as a template for Vietnamese scholars when they decided to create the new Vietnamese writing system, Quoc Ngu, which is still used to this day. French forces were also involved in Vietnamese political disputes as early as the 18th century, when Pigneau de Behaine’s French troops intervened in favour of the establishment of the Nguyen Dynasty in 1787.
The relationship is also complex, as it still bears the legacy of 150 years of ruthless colonial exploitation, as well as the memory of one of the most catastrophic defeats of a Western army at the hands of a third world army, at Dien Bien Phu, which subsequently led to Vietnam’s proclamation of independence in 1954. Franco-Vietnamese ties did not remain acrimonious for long, however, despite their bloodstained history. Indeed, when communism caved in on itself in Eastern Europe and Soviet Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Vietnamese leadership discovered that France was the one of the few Western states with whom it had maintained diplomatic channels. Throughout much of the Cold War, successive French governments served as mediators in-between Vietnam and the Western bloc, playing host to the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 and to the negotiations to bring the American-led war in Vietnam to a close. Paris was also where the peace talks destined to bring the Cambodia war to an end unfurled in 1991.
Waning Economic and Cultural Ties:
Since the end of World War II and the loss of most of its overseas territories, France has struggled to safeguard its position on the global stage, largely by attempting to maintain a degree of economic and cultural influence over its ex colonies. In Vietnam, as in other countries, this has taken the shape of hefty aid packages, as well as zealous attempts by a government-funded organization, the “Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie” to revive target populations’ flagging interest in French language and culture. France, which has donated more than 2 billion euros or 3 billion dollars for local Vietnamese programs, has thus become over the years the second largest aid donor to Vietnam after Japan. In 1993, it was a French bank that organised the bridging loan at advantageous rates that helped repay Vietnam’s crippling debt. France is also the European Union’s number one investor in Vietnam, and over 180, 000 French tourists visit Vietnam every year.
Despite all this, there are signs that French influence in Vietnam is waning. This is most visible on the cultural front-where France’s ongoing struggle to promote “francophonie” has become something of a lost battle. From 1996 to 2006 vast sums of money were injected into the creation of French language courses and bilingual study groups. It soon became apparent that Vietnamese students and officials tended to view such initiatives as mere opportunities for career advancement-unless grants and scholarships were attached to the French courses they would immediately abandon them in favour of languages deemed to be more useful in today’s world, such as English or Chinese. As a result, today only a minute minority of Vietnamese speak French.
France’s economic presence in Vietnam is also on the decline. American investment and trade has surged past that of the French over the past few years, with the French embassy in Hanoi reporting a 4% decrease in Franco-Vietnamese general trade figures for 2008. France’s exports to Vietnam in 2008, estimated at 392 million euros, were 14.6% lower than in 2007.
A renewed emphasis on economic cooperation:
It is in this light that one must view the French Prime Minister’s visit to Vietnam last week. Accompanied by 45 representatives of France’s most high profile companies, as well as three government ministers, Francois Fillon declared on several occasions that the main purpose of his visit was to inject a new vigour into Franco-Vietnamese ties by stymieing the ongoing decline in bilateral trade. French companies and investors have been ogling Vietnam’s almost insolent rate of growth (5.5% in 2009, 6.5% projected for 2010) at a time when France, as well as most of its Western trading partners, are floundering in the wake of the global financial turndown. Several major business deals were thus clinched during the French Prime Minister’s three day visit.
Most notable amongst these were the announcements that Vietnam Airlines had decided to purchase four A-380s each estimated at approximately 300 million euros each (the deal should be finalized by the first trimester of 2010) and the awarding of a 200 million euro contract to the French engineering firm Vinci, which will be entrusted with the construction of Ho Chi Minh’s projected state of the art tramway system, which should spread out over 12 to 15km.
The single most significant result of Prime Minister Fillon’s visit, however, was undoubtedly the signing of a landmark nuclear cooperation pact between both countries. With an electricity growth rate expected to be more than double that of its GDP growth rate over the next decade, Vietnam has been contemplating the construction of a nuclear power plant for years. During this period, French nuclear energy firms such as Areva have been lurking in the background, biding their time, discreetly providing expertise in nuclear energy related matters, and lobbying in favour of a nuclear law. The French Nuclear Energy Research Agency has also undertaken cooperation programmes with the Vietnam Nuclear Energy Institute since 2002.
In June 2008, the Vietnamese Communist Party legalized civilian nuclear energy and declared its intention to erect by 2020 a 2 000 MW nuclear plant capable of generating at least 14 to 15 billion kWh of power a year. Feasibility plans are scheduled to commence next year, and the Ninh Phuoc District in southern Ninh Thuan has been cited as its most likely location. Areva stated immediately after the signing of the cooperation deal that the latter would most likely pave the way for a French-built reactor, in the face of strong Japanese and Chinese competition. Vietnamese lawmakers will then have to validate the decision to award the juicy 3.4 billion dollar contract in the course of 2010.
The outlining of a future strategic partnership?
The strategic aspect of Franco-Vietnamese ties has traditionally been neglected in favour of economic cooperation. A strategic dialogue, rather vaguely described as “sessions in which the participants can discuss diverse regional and international matters in an informal manner” has been in place for the past four years but seems singularly lacking in substance-there have been no bilateral exercises or joint training programmes for example. This is largely due to the fact that for Paris, Southeast Asia and East Asia do not loom large on its strategic radar. Unlike India or Singapore, who have considerably upped their defence ties with Vietnam over the past few years, there is no resurgent China pushing at France's borders. Vietnam has also traditionally relied on Russian and Chinese weapon systems when it comes to arms acquisitions, and there is therefore no history of Franco-Vietnamese arms trade and defence cooperation to build upon.
Recent developments, however, show that this may be about to change. Both countries pledged to enhance the scope and ambit of their strategic partnership, and on the 13th of November, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) signed an agreement with Astrium (EADS Space) to acquire a microsatellite worth 56 million euros in order to keep a closer eye on its coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ. The satellite should be put into orbit via Ariane, France’s launching site in Guyana, and came in the wake of an intergovernmental space-cooperation accord signed in Hanoi. Another maritime surveillance protocol, worth approximately 14 million euros, could also well be awarded to the French satellite company CLS in the not-too-distant future.
In private, French arms dealers do not hide that they hope that the deepening of Paris and Hanoi’s strategic ties will lead to the eventual acquisition by Vietnam of French weapons system. An individual working at the French weapons firm Thales recently confided to me in Paris that it was hoped that Vietnam’s recent efforts in acquiring a conventional submarine arm in the face of increasingly assertive Chinese claims over the Spratly Islands would lead it to consider certain hi-tech submarine and anti-submarine warfare systems in which the French are known to be at the cutting edge; such as passive ranging sonars, obstacle avoidance navigation sonars, lightweight torpedoes and torpedo countermeasure systems. The acquisition of such systems could act as a great boon to Vietnam’s strategy of sea denial vis a vis China’s growing flotilla of both conventional and nuclear submarines.
All in all, the French Prime Minister’s visit can be viewed as a positive development in Franco-Vietnamese ties. Taking into consideration the depth of both countries’ historical and cultural ties over the centuries, it would be regrettable if their current bilateral relationship reduced itself to little more than an impersonal and large-scale business meeting taking place every two to three years.
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