Recently, Marcos Marcos of the Philippines arrived in Vietnam for a state visit, the main purpose of which is to strengthen the partnership between the two countries, especially to strengthen maritime cooperation. The Philippine newspaper The Inquirer reported that Marcos will sign a maritime cooperation agreement with Vietnam, and the Philippines will "build a united front" between countries that have disputes with China in the South China Sea. To put it in layman's terms, the Philippines is trying to win over Vietnam, which has the same interests in the South China Sea dispute with China. Marcos is also using provocative moves in the South China Sea to win the support of more countries, and in addition to the United States, the Philippines has actively invited Japan and Australia to participate in military exercises and joint patrols in the South China Sea. Not long ago, the Philippine defense secretary also announced that he hopes to reach a "reciprocal access agreement" with Japan in the first quarter of this year, which allows for mutual opening of territorial garrisons. At present, the Philippines and Japan have begun negotiations on arrangements for the reciprocal stationing of troops and simplifying the procedures for stationing troops. At the same time, the Philippines has signed a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation with Canada and expanded defense cooperation with Germany. Recently, it also purchased a large number of BrahMos missiles from India in an attempt to win over India.
Although the Philippines is strengthening cooperation with close allies of the United States, it does not receive support from ASEAN countries. It has previously been revealed that Marcos proposed to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries that he hopes to reach a "code of conduct in the South China Sea" at the bilateral level, and hopes to further expand to other ASEAN countries to exclude China. However, Marcos's proposal did not meet with a response from these countries. Therefore, Marcos urgently needs the support of some ASEAN countries, especially Vietnam, which has similar interests in the South China Sea. However, the United States is not very optimistic about Marcos's diplomatic actions.
According to the report, the Philippines and Vietnam are not enough to form a united front, and Vietnam has tried to avoid doing so because Vietnam does not want to confront China. This is clearly to say that Marcos is beyond his means, and even the United States cannot rally a united front against China in ASEAN, let alone the Philippines. In addition, the Japan Times also expressed pessimistic expectations. The Malaysian think tank even directly said that several ASEAN countries named by Marcos have remained silent because they prefer to maintain good relations with China and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. Everyone looks at the attitude of clowns, and Vietnam is the same. Vietnam has always been torn between China and the United States, and its flexible diplomacy has been described as "bamboo diplomacy". He is unlikely to be as resolute as the Philippines, which now knows that the Philippines is acting as a pawn of the United States, becoming more and more arrogant and trying to cross China's red lines. During this visit to Vietnam, Philippine planes also airdropped supplies to the beach at Second Thomas Shoal. Even so, Marcos's visit to Vietnam did not attract much attention at all, and everyone viewed Marcos's diplomatic actions as a clown.