On a Wednesday in late October, To Lam, who holds both the Communist Party leadership and the presidency of Vietnam, arrived in Brussels, where a deepening partnership with Europe has become one of the more consequential commercial stories of the decade. Built on a trade agreement that took effect in 2020, the relationship now rests on shared hopes of keeping markets open and reducing dependence on any single power, yet it sits uneasily beside a persistent question: whether economic ambition has outpaced the commitments Hanoi made about labor and human rights. Between the gains of closer ties
Brussels Deepens Ties with Hanoi as Rights Groups Question Whether Profits Are Outweighing Human Rights
Rights organizations say repression has intensified, severely restricting political opposition, independent journalism and civil society, and independent trade unions remain prohibited.
Rights groups say Hanoi has failed to deliver on its labor pledges
Mark
Why does a state visit like this draw so much attention right now?
Mimi
Because it lands on top of a new EFTA trade deal signed days earlier, and the EU upgraded ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in January. Momentum is clearly building.
Mark
And the rights groups are objecting to that momentum?
Mimi
Twelve organizations wrote to von der Leyen and Costa this week. They say Hanoi broke its EVFTA labor pledges and the EU responded with an upgrade rather than pressure.
Luke
Worth separating what's established from what's argued. Vietnam not ratifying the ILO freedom of association convention and banning independent unions is stated as fact. That the EU took no action is the groups' claim, from their letter.
Mark
What about the claim that repression has intensified under To Lam?
Luke
That's attributed to rights organizations. The piece gives no case counts or specific incidents, so we can't measure how much it has intensified.
Mimi
What is measurable is the trade deficit: €51.7 billion in 2025, up from about €24 billion in 2019. That's a real strain on the story that this is simply win-win.
Mark
Is the deficit what's holding up the investment agreement?
Luke
The source doesn't say why France, the Netherlands and others haven't ratified. Germany and Poland have. The reasons for the holdouts are unknown here.
Mimi
And Humphrey notes European investment has risen anyway, so the missing agreement hasn't stopped money flowing.
Mark
So what decides the next phase?
Luke
Per Bui, whether Vietnam can meet tougher EU standards. That's one researcher's forecast, not a certainty.
O Pulso
- Brussels welcomes To Lam as trade with Vietnam swells, with the EU's goods deficit now standing at €51.7 billion.
- Twelve rights groups accuse Hanoi of ignoring labor pledges, and say Brussels rewarded the failure with a deeper partnership.
- Investment protections remain stalled, with France, the Netherlands and others yet to ratify the 2019 agreement.
- Exporters scramble to meet new EU carbon and deforestation rules, while smaller domestic firms struggle to keep pace.
- Diplomats press on with security talks and new partnerships, and the outcome now hinges on whether Vietnam meets tougher standards.
On a Wednesday in late October, To Lam, who holds both the Communist Party leadership and the presidency of Vietnam, arrived in Brussels, where a deepening partnership with Europe has become one of the more consequential commercial stories of the decade. Built on a trade agreement that took effect in 2020, the relationship now rests on shared hopes of keeping markets open and reducing dependence on any single power, yet it sits uneasily beside a persistent question: whether economic ambition has outpaced the commitments Hanoi made about labor and human rights. Between the gains of closer ties and the grievances of rights advocates, the coming chapters will show whether trade and conscience can grow together.
To Lam arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for an official visit to the European Union and Belgium, days after Vietnam signed a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association. For Hanoi, the trip is another sign of how quickly its ties with Europe have grown.
The foundation is the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 2020. Vietnam is now the EU's largest goods-trading partner in Southeast Asia, and in January the two sides raised the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Analysts see a shared logic: Europe gains a manufacturing base and a foothold in Asian supply chains, while Vietnam gains capital, technology and a large market, and the EU sees the partnership as part of its effort to reduce its reliance on China. Kaja Kallas also met Vietnam's foreign minister to discuss security, including in the South China Sea.
The human rights picture is harder. Rights organizations say repression has intensified under To Lam, and this week twelve international groups wrote to the leaders of the Commission and the Council, arguing that Hanoi has not delivered on labor and rights commitments, including ratifying the ILO freedom of association convention and allowing independent trade unions. They say Brussels upgraded relations without acting on repeated breaches.
The economic gains are uneven too. Large foreign-invested firms have benefited most, while smaller domestic exporters struggle with Europe's demanding import rules. European businesses have their own complaint: the EU's goods deficit with Vietnam reached €51.7 billion in 2025, and the 2019 Investment Protection Agreement still awaits ratification by several member states. For Brussels, the coming phase is about showing that its commitments on rights and sustainable trade are more than words.
To Lam, who serves as both Communist Party chief and president of Vietnam, arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for an official visit to the European Union and Belgium. His trip came just days after Vietnam signed a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association, the bloc made up of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. It is one more marker of how quickly Hanoi's ties with Europe have grown.
The foundation is the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, known as the EVFTA, which took effect in August 2020 and widened Vietnam's commercial links with most European states. Vietnam is now the EU's largest goods-trading partner in Southeast Asia and its 14th-largest worldwide. The EU, for its part, is Vietnam's fourth-largest trading partner and a major source of foreign investment. In January the two sides raised the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the first agreement of that kind between the EU and any Southeast Asian country.
Analysts see a shared logic. Khac Giang Nguyen, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told DW that amid global tariff wars the relationship is a welcome advertisement for keeping markets open. In his view both sides win: Europe gets an established manufacturing base and a foothold in Asian supply chains, while Vietnam gets capital, technology and a large market, which lessens its exposure to American demand and Chinese industrial inputs. Alfred Gerstl of the University of Vienna said the cooperation is central to the EU's economic security agenda and its effort to de-risk from China. Several EU states have also signed defense agreements with Vietnam, and on Wednesday EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas met Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung to discuss security cooperation, including in the South China Sea, where Hanoi has territorial disputes with China.
The human rights picture is harder. Vietnam remains a one-party communist state that severely restricts political opposition, independent journalism and civil society. Rights organizations say repression has intensified under To Lam, who earlier headed the powerful public security ministry. This week, 12 international human rights groups sent an open letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Antonio Costa, voicing grave concerns about the Vietnamese government's intensifying repression and urging them to demand meaningful reforms.
The letter points to commitments Hanoi made while the EVFTA and its accompanying political agreements were negotiated: obligations on human rights, labor protections and environmental standards, including reforming labor law to allow independent worker organizations and moving domestic rules closer to International Labour Organization standards. The groups say Vietnam has not delivered. It has still not ratified the ILO convention on freedom of association, and independent trade unions remain banned. The EU, the letter says, took no action over repeated breaches and instead upgraded relations in January.
The economic gains have also been uneven. Large foreign-invested manufacturers and established exporters have been better placed to use the tariff cuts than smaller domestic firms, which often lack the resources to handle Europe's complicated import requirements. Exporters now face added demands from the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and its deforestation rules, which require more detailed information on production and supply chains. Hai Thiem Bui of the Stockholm Center for Global Asia at Stockholm University told DW that the deal's benefits have been spread unevenly across sectors, firms and social groups, and that the next phase will depend less on tariffs than on whether Vietnam can meet tougher EU standards on labor rights, sustainability and regulatory governance.
European businesses have their own grievance. The EVFTA has lifted Vietnamese exports to Europe far more than EU sales to Vietnam. The EU's goods-trade deficit with Vietnam reached €51.7 billion ($57.9 billion) in 2025, up from roughly €24 billion in 2019. Meanwhile the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement, signed in 2019, has still not entered into force. Germany ratified it in February and Poland in April, but France, the Netherlands and several other member states have not. It would strengthen legal protections for investors and create a permanent mechanism for resolving disputes.
Chris Humphrey, executive director of the EU-ASEAN Business Council, said European investment in Vietnam has risen even without the agreement, and that he expects trade to keep flourishing under a new Vietnamese government pursuing an ambitious legislative program. He added that many European firms are watching closely to see what reforms it brings. For Brussels, the coming phase is about making sure EU businesses share in Vietnam's growth while showing that its human rights and sustainable-trade commitments are more than diplomatic promises.
Citações Notáveis
The EU has taken no action in response to Vietnam's repeated breaches of its EVFTA-related obligations and pledges; instead, in January it upgraded bilateral relations.— Joint open letter from 12 human rights organizations
The next phase of EU-Vietnam trade relations is likely to depend less on tariff liberalization and more on whether Vietnam can adapt to increasingly demanding EU standards.— Hai Thiem Bui, Stockholm Center for Global Asia
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