General Secretary and President of Vietnam To Lam’s keynote address at the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue was historic for several reasons. As the first Vietnamese leader to address the Dialogue in over 13 years, he used the opportunity to push back against the erosion of rules, development models and strategic trust. For smaller states in the international system, he argued, development is inseparable from security.
Ever since Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos speech diagnosed a rupture in the rules-based order, much has been made about a ‘middle power moment’. Lam’s speech shows Vietnam is ready to meet that moment.
Lam’s words are not just rhetoric. In the Lowy Institute’s 2025 Asia Power Index, Vietnam enjoyed the second-largest increase since 2024 in ‘comprehensive power’, ranking 12th out of 27 countries. Vietnam is increasingly translating economic growth and diplomatic prudence into tangible outcomes, working with other middle powers to promote mutual development and strengthening guardrails against non-traditional security threats as it navigates the perils of the ruptured world order.
For example, during Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to Vietnam in May 2026, the two countries signed six cooperative agreements covering climate resilience, low-carbon growth, digital transformation, satellite data and artificial intelligence (AI). The agreements built on the ‘new-generation’ official development assistance framework the countries had announced two months earlier. During Lam’s visit to India, the two countries inked an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and signed 13 cooperation agreements.
