Is Vietnam Gearing Up For Geopolitical Control of Southeast Asian Nations?

By Soben Ung

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Vietnamese President To Lam recently visited Laos and Cambodia, and met with the Laotian Party Leader on July 11, prior to arriving in Cambodia on July 12. The President had meetings with Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamuni, Cambodia’s ruling party (CPP) President and President of Senate Hun Sen, Cambodian National Assembly Khuon Sudary, and Vietnamese associations in Cambodia.

After Hun Sen ousted the opposition party (CNRP) ahead of the general election in 2018, he cleared the way for the ruling party (CPP) to take full control of Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen then had his son Hun Manet appointed by the party to be prime minister in 2023, violating the Cambodian constitution in which a prime minister must previously serve as a member of parliament prior to becoming a prime minister. The election for the position ignored other party members with more seniority.

Earlier this year, Cambodia’s one-party state held a Senate election on February 25. Hun Sen maintains a tight grip on the country by inserting himself back in power as Senate President.

Vietnam is a communist country without opposition since it took over the South in 1975. Vietnam helped created Cambodia People’s Party in 1979 after the invasion of Cambodia that ironically put an end to Pol Pot era. However, the war between Hun Sen who was backed by Vietnam’s military and Cambodian nationalists went on for 10 years until the Paris Peace Accord Agreement in 1991. At the time, the whole world condemned Vietnam for the invasion and put sanction on its economy. Vietnam agreed to withdraw its troops only after the fall of the Soviet Union because it no longer had money and supplies to fund the war.

Watching Vietnamese flags flying high in Cambodia, the Cambodian citizens are scared of another invasion but have yet to understand what is happening in their own country.

Vietnam left behind an iron fist with Hun Sen and his communist politburo, who participated in Cambodia’s first free and fair election in 1993, supervised by the United Nations. It wasn’t long until Hun Sen got rid of all his opponent democrats, Prince Norodom Ranarith and Sam Rainsy. Three decades later, Cambodia is now at the hands of Hun Sen and his friendly ally, the Communist Party of Vietnam.

The President of Vietnam’s Communist Party, To Lam, is one of many frequent Vietnamese ministers visiting Cambodia lately after the dissolution of the opposition party. Being the only ruling party in Cambodia and having “owed its birth” to Vietnam, the Cambodian puppet government has erected a Cambodia-Vietnam friendship monument in every province throughout the country.

The Vietnamese President’s recent visits involved asking Cambodian People Party President Hun Sen to gear up the legislative ties between the countries. They signed an agreement in November 2022, and organized the first Cambodia – Laos – Vietnam (CLV) Parliamentary Summit in December 2023.

With these meetings, Vietnam has orchestrated what they referred as “inter-parliamentary forums like the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF),” according to the Vietnamese state newspaper. However, the model framework of their inter parliamentary forums function more like the Eurasian Economic Union where Russia controls all its neighboring countries. In another word, Vietnam has created a mini Soviet Union in Southeast Asia and the world does not know it. Despite their messages of “friendship and collaboration,” by using the inter-parliamentary assemblies, Vietnam aims to control the rest of Southeast Asia.

According to the Vietnamese State-owned newspaper, Hun Sen and his ally, the Communist Party of Vietnam, will not only hold annual meetings among the ministers of public security/interior, and defenses of the three countries, but they will do “joint exercises in response to non-traditional security challenges.”  The three counties held the 1st Annual Conference of Ministers of Public Security and Home Affairs in March 29, 2024 in Da Nang city.

The two leaders agreed to reform the education and communication in Cambodia to bolster public acceptance of “friendship, solidary, and comprehensive cooperation” with Vietnam. The comprehensive cooperation here means they first will have meetings with parliamentary leaders, ministers of public security and national defense and foreign affairs, along with leaders of some other ministries and sectors not limited to business, education and more.

On that front, President Lam gave $20,000 to the Vietnamese non-profit in Cambodia to build schools for Vietnamese children in Cambodia. He also asked the Cambodian People’s Party President Hun Sen to create favorable business conditions for the Vietnamese. Currently, Vietnam already has nearly half a million hectares from 55 land concessions in Cambodia. Through these land concessions, which had very little to no benefit for the villagers, corrupted governmental officials and military personnel in Vietnam are complicit in trafficking luxury timber from Cambodia National Parks and pocketed millions of dollars in bribes from the smugglers, as reported by the environmental investigation agency.

Vietnam established the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Triangle Area Development Agreement in 1999 which involved 10 provinces and later increased to 13 provinces between the three countries and aimed to promote economic connectivity along the border. Under this development pretext, many Cambodian experts have raised their concerns that Cambodia will lose its sovereignty. Many Cambodians think it’s a small matter because the development will be only in border provinces, but little do they know that Vietnam intends to have the Vietnamese people live and work freely without visas, trading that is controlled by Vietnam, schools teaching Vietnamese language and culture, and promoting friendship with Vietnam throughout the entirety of Cambodia and Laos.

Recently, Vietnam built a new National Assembly Building in Cambodia which cost $25 million and will be opening soon, according to the President of the Cambodian National Assembly, Khuon Sudary. In Laos, Vietnam also built a New National Assembly building, parliamentary office, and several other buildings for education and culture that cost nearly $300 million. With this inter-parliamentary forum, Cambodia has 17 million people, Laos has 7.5 million people, Vietnam has 98 million people. When it comes to voting, it’s 1 Cambodian to 5.7 Vietnamese. There will be no power for Cambodia or Laos.

The friendship with Vietnam is heavily protected by Hun Sen. Any criticism will result in prison time. A student, Thel Theland, who spoke against the University of Phnom Penh for implementing Vietnamese language, was arrested and imprisoned for over a year.

A Cambodian think tank in the US said “with this inter-parliamentary forum under guise of friendship and cooperation, we will see everything published in three languages, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laos. Vietnam claims it’s like IEU, (Inter-Parlimentary Union) which similar to UN but the members are the current member of parliament and their budget is limited and it is completely like an association. This is worse than that. Here Vietnam will have the control of everything from education to business to culture and politics. Cambodia and Laos lose their sovereignty.”