Gambling on the ‘Little Dragon’: Toward an EU-Japan strategic convergence on Vietnam?

The present article aims to analyse recent EU-Japan joint engagement with Vietnam in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. It seeks to do so by illustrating the historical transformations in the geopolitical arrangements centred on the Asia-Pacific region between Japan and the EU in the light of ‘situational’ US policies toward the region under Trump, Japan’s strengthened global role, Vietnam’s historical struggle to diversify its foreign policy vectors and maintain autonomy, and growing expectations of EU engagement in the region as a champion of free trade and the rule of law.