The term “doi moi,” which translates from Vietnamese as renovation or reform, became the formal label for these economic changes. They mirror similar important reforms in China since the late 1970s.In November 2017, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit took place in Danang, Vietnam.
Vietnam also hosted the 2006 APEC summit. That gathering provided an opportunity to highlight the nation’s economic growth and the wider commitment to multilateralism. Recent years have seen escalation of maritime conflicts across Asia. For example, in April 2014 China authorities impounded the Baosteel Emotion, a freighter of Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. The move was part of commercial claims resulting from World War II. The two nations also both claim the Senkaku Islands.
There are military security aspects to APEC summits, though the focus is economics. In the 2008 summit held in Peru, Americans and Russians discussed differences over Moscow’s invasion of Georgia, and missile developments in Europe and Korea. In 2006, Hanoi honored U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and our government with a martial parade, complete with American flags — an ironic and truly poignant gesture.