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 Germany |  Vietnam |
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Germany–Vietnam relations are the bilateral relations betweenGermany andVietnam.
Germany has an embassy inHanoi and a consulate general inHo Chi Minh City, while Vietnam has an embassy inBerlin and a consulate general inFrankfurt.
During the first 6 months ofWorld War I the government-general ofFrench Indochina expelled allGerman andAustro-Hungarian people living in French Indochina.[1]
The two largest pre-war import/export houses, Speidel & Co. and F. Engler & Co., were German companies which caused them to be officially re-organised asFrench companies, however in reality they continued to operate under both German control and using German capital.[1] During the 1910s Speidel & Co. was the largest importer of European goods into the country with Engler being one of its major competitors.[1] After the German owners were expulsed from the company lower level employees tried to continue running these companies despite increasing push back from the French colonial authorities by means of arbitrary customs enforcement, freight interference, and regulatory aggravations.[2][1] Later the French would seize all of the German Speidel Company's warehouses and would sell the seized goods at low prices both to Vietnamese consumers andChinese exporters to try and increaserevenue.[1] These goods includedrice,wine, andcanned goods.[1]
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East Germany (GDR) established diplomatic contacts with socialistNorth Vietnam and supported them with humanitarian and financial aid during theVietnam War, whereasWest Germany supportedSouth Vietnam. Under the slogan “Solidarity with Vietnam” against the “imperialist aggressor” (theUS), numerous GDR citizens provided aid. In 1968, for example, 50,000 trade unionists donated blood in a relief operation. TheStasi also helped to build up the North Vietnamese secret service. After thereunification of Vietnam, the close relationship continued.[3] Due to an acute shortage of workers, the GDR and Vietnam signed a contract in April 1980 for the dispatch of contract workers.[4] In return for the provision of development aid amounting to one billionEast German marks, Vietnam subsequently sent 200,000guest workers to the GDR. The GDR was also able to import scarce goods such ascoffee,tea,rubber andpepper from Vietnam.[5] In 1989, the year ofreunification, the 60,000 Vietnamese in the country were the largest group of foreigners in the GDR.[6]
West Germany supported the US in the Vietnam War, but didn't send troops. In 1967, the German chemical and pharmaceutical companyBoehringer Ingelheim supplied 720 tons oftrichlorophenolate lye to a subsidiary ofDow Chemical inNew Zealand, which the company used to produceAgent Orange for the Vietnam War.[7] The sale was made public in 1991 by a report inDer Spiegel and confirmed by Boehringer Ingelheim another year later.[8]
Relations between the two countries improved after theĐổi Mới reforms and German reunification, and development aid in the areas of education, energy and the environment as well as economic relations were resumed. From the very beginning, the most important priority areas of development cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and Vietnam were the promotion of economic reforms and the development of a market economy.[9] German companies became increasingly active in Vietnam.
In October 2011, German ChancellorAngela Merkel and Vietnamese Prime MinisterNguyễn Tấn Dũng signed the "Hanoi Declaration", establishing a Strategic Partnership between Germany and Vietnam that is designed to strengthen political, economic and cultural relations and development cooperation.[10] As part of increased political cooperation, there is a exchange between Germany and Vietnam at all levels. Since 2011, more meetings have been held to improve cooperation on project funding, including in the areas of political-strategic dialog, business, trade and investment, justice and law, development cooperation and environmental protection, education, science, technology, culture, media and society.[11]
In 2017,Trịnh Xuân Thanh, a former communist party member and businessman who was accused of being corrupt, was secretly abducted and kidnapped inBerlin by a group of unnamed Vietnamese personnel believed to be Vietnamese agents in Germany.[12] In response, Germany accused Vietnam for "violating the territorial rights of Germany" and ordered a total expulsion of a number of Vietnamese foreign officials in Germany.[13] Germany also suspended Vietnamese workers from going to Germany to start for investigation.[14]
Vietnam is in the process of ratifying afree trade agreement with theEuropean Union which includes Germany as Europe's largest economy. In 2016, bilateral trade was worth US$10.3 billion.[10] By 2023, total trade had grown to €17.2 billion with a €10.1 billion trade balance in Vietnam's favour.[15]
The Vietnamese-German University was opened inHo Chi Minh City in September 2008.[10]
Ex-politician and businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh was strolling through the park Berliner Tiergarten with his girlfriend when presumably agents of the Vietnamese secret service jumped out of a van and dragged the two inside. With the kidnapping on German grounds, they not only broke international law but also the arm of Thanh's lover. [...] The price for this operation was probably very high, both financially and diplomatically. The relations between Vietnam and Germany were suspended.
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