U.S.-Vietnam agreement: Hanoi’s major transformation as part of a strategy to shift the balance of power in Southeast Asia

The start of 2025 marked the intensification of a systemic U.S. strategy aimed at simultaneously overloading China’s resources and capabilities across multiple strategic fronts.

The administration of Donald Trump, implementing the principle of “selective overmatch,” significantly increased economic and tariff pressure on Beijing, reorganized regional supply chains, and revived the doctrine of “containment through co-development.”

A central component of this strategy was the engagement of Vietnam — a promising “anti-China gateway” in terms of Indo-Pacific security and industrial production.