France's imperial ambition to be independent of the US should be viewed as a useful tool of bourgeoise division and working with France should be seen as keeping it from falling entirely into vassalisation under US imperial control.
France was financing Brazil's nuclear submarine program (before the 2016 coup). Which pissed the US off, now France is financing it again under Lula da Silva (again, probably bc Macron really fucking hates Bolsonaro and prefers Lula), lol.
Right, exactly. And in the context of a clash between capitalism and communism I'd rather have several opportunist bourgeoise factions representing multiple imperial projects rather than one imperial dominion under the United States.
Working with the weaker imperial projects on safe things that do not threaten socialism is ok. Working with the US is not.
If anyone here freaks out about cooperation agreements with the west keep in mind these are several rungs below the cooperation with Laos, Cambodia, and China, VERY explicitly so
That's precisely why I think this is a money making scheme for rich officials and contractors in Hanoi, the amounts are too low to set off the state's corruption detectors, but the precedent still sets a bad example institutionally
Hanoi needs some serious infrastructure so I do agree the amounts should be higher but this is paranoid thinking
The country is poor and literally every facet of infrastructure could do with cash injection, there's hardly room for graft without pissing people off. They actually sentence people for it and NGOs aren't getting a free ride anymore.
The level of pessimism coming out here from people who don't even know how these cooperation agreements work is kind of disappointing.
China being their neighbor might actually be the problem, you don't want to become overly reliant on one country, especially one with past and present border conflicts (SCS)
I’m sure the Chinese didn’t develop their HSR system without foreign consulting and experts just like how France was also consulting for California HSR. Not that the Chinese aren’t capable but why reinvent the wheel when you can get engineering expertise in your exact problem and they can train your domestic workers.
Yeah the game plan is literally China 30 years ago. Cambodia and Laos fly under the radar but their rate of development is fantastic with this strategy. I don't think some people here understand how badly Hanoi needs regular highways and bus lines too.
They do cooperate with China! China is still a developing country and France is one of the imperial cutpurses of the west, so winning that plunder back in the form of infrastructure (and not cracking their markets open for the West) is advantageous and not really what France wants.
If I was gonna sign an agreement to build rail in my country, I wouldn't go with France, or frankly any western country
This shit smacks of personnel graft at the top of Hanoi
Minister Nguyen Van Thang thanked AFD for providing loans for Vietnam's railway infrastructure development projects and hoped that with AFD's active support and coordination
Ah yes rail, the industry famous for profitability and ease of debt servicing
I wouldn't go with France, or frankly any western country
To be fair, being Spanish, I'm kinda proud of our public high speed railways. Uzbekistan for example had their high speed lines made by the Spanish, and I think it's one of the (if not the) cheapest high speed rails in the world per km, and fairly decent.
Uzbekistan mentioned!!! I am so optimistic about Central Asia I am sure I am missing some nasty surprises for the future. I almosr wish it could fly more under the radar but it's going to be further used as an attack surfacs against Russia and China.
Are you guys seriously getting the heebie jeebies about Hanoi getting a bridge fixed? This reminds me of when the Maoists who took over the WTYP discord went nuts over China calling an automated bus that followed a painted street a "railless train".
Yeah my reaction that is all [Walter White screaming through the car window] like why you inviting the snakes back in after fighting so hard to get rid of them?
They already do this with the US! Big problem with opening up to the US was NGO people stealing infrastructure data but I'm pretty sure they were going to find a way to get that one way or another. The capital inflows being managed by the state is more important.
Who's going to build it? Lmao... I suppose if the Viets are just pulling one on France though, good on them (and if they actually build the rail while doing so, all the better)
I guess getting kicked out of Sahel means you have to find another victim as replacement for the export of capital. And while we’re at it, why not call up your former colony who had already kicked you out once and ask if they’re still willing to play?