SOUTHEAST ASIA IN ARGENTINA’S EXTERNAL AGENDA: ARGENTINA’S FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM (2006-2015)

Abstract

In the last decades, Argentina has tried to find new options of external relations that allow the country  to diminish its dependency from traditional markets such as the Brazilian, the European or the North American. In this context, non-traditional markets have gained relevance in the external commercial agenda of Argentina. That situation becomes evident in the different initiatives carried out towards South East Asia (SEA).

The objective of this article is to analyze Argentina’s foreign policy towards Vietnam, taking into account the political-diplomatic and economic-commercial aspects, being the Asian country one of the main trade partners in the region as well as one of the most dynamic economies since 2000. Its relevance lays in the fact that Vietnam's participation in the Argentinean exports has grown, as well as the diverse governmental initiatives  that are carried on byboth sides; official visits, trade missions and agreements. They seek to deepen and expand the relationships between those two countries.

The analysis is centered from 2006 —when a sustain export growth began— until 2015. It describes the political and commercial events and analyzes the factors that have influenced  new relations. Our main assumption is that the bilateral relations have been guided by commercial issues and that the foreign policy’s actions have accompanied such impetus. The research’s design is descriptive and the methodology qualitative. Our objective is to describe and analyze foreign policy’s actions. The research has been based, mainly, on secondary sources and the technique has been the documentary analysis and data triangulation. As a conclusion, it can be said that Vietnam has a great potentiality as a partner of Argentina. Nevertheless, the asymmetrical trade relation —with a surplus for Argentina— leads to a commercial axis that keeps on being the bases of the links between countries. Even though Argentina has an interest towards Vietnam, its actions will not be enough if Argentina seeks a diversification and an autonomous international insertion.