The partnership Jakarta and Hanoi signed, and the one they did not
In his latest article, Aniello Iannone examines the gap between formal diplomatic declarations and real strategic commitment in Indonesia-Vietnam relations. Highlighting the July 2026 action plan signing, Iannone contrasts rising bilateral trade and electric vehicle manufacturing investments with deeper structural tensions: trade asymmetry where Jakarta supplies raw inputs while Hanoi captures high-value manufacturing, ongoing protectionist tariffs, and most crucially, the unratified 2022 Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundary agreement in the South China Sea. The article reveals how Jakarta's reluctance to ratify the EEZ treaty stems from strategic hedging against Beijing's nine-dash line claims, illustrating a broader, systemic pattern where Southeast Asian nations adopt "diplomatic fluency"—accumulating non-binding partnerships while systematically postponing hard legal and industrial commitments. To move beyond performative diplomacy, Iannone argues that both states must replace symbolic action plans with genuine technology transfer, non-tariff barrier reductions, and formal treaty ratifications.
