Vietnam - Thailand Relationship during the Dynasty

Abstract

Vietnam-Thailand relationship has not been a cordial one, just as the historical experience tells us: "the relationship has never been friendly between neighboring countries". One of the reasons why the relationship between Vietnam and the neighboring countries, including Thailand, has not been friendly was due to the so-called little Sino-centrism. Fortunately, confrontation between the two countries could have been regulated relatively well thanks to the buffer roles played by both Champa and Cambodia in different periods.

However, with the decline of both Champa and Cambodia, the relationship between Vietnam and Thailand became more confrontational and even sometimes fallen into the courses of collision. Since the early days, China's southward advance, which had political as well as economic objectives. as well as Champa's northward advance made the Vietnamese history a history of endless struggles. Under this circumstance of protracted conflicts and collisions with Myanmar and Cambodia, which aimed at regional hegemony, the Thai history was studded with various struggles. In order to overcome these problems the two countries has respectively pursued Southward and Eastward advance policy. As such, the bilateral ties between Vietnam and Thailand were affected by both Champa and Cambodia on the one hand and by the expansionist policies on the other.

Vietnam's southward advance and Cambodia's eastward advance, too, affected the relationship between the two countries. Nonetheless, it was not as bad as the ones between Vietnam and Cambodia, or between Thailand and Cambodia. It was because there were Champa and Cambodia who functioned as the buffer zones. Then, it was by no mean a friendly relationship because both countries pursued the expansionist ideology.