Joint Webinar with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS)

The joint virtual session between the Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) about regional issues was held on Wednesday , July 28, 2021.

 The joint virtual session between the Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) about regional issues was held on Wednesday , July 28, 2021.  

The session was held by a lecture by Mr.Majid Ghafelebashi, Research Deputy at the Center; and attended by Khalil Shirgholami, Senior Expert at IPIS; Hassan Ahmadian, Professor of university of Tehran; Mr.Dang Xuan Thanh, Deputy of VASS; Le Phuoc Minh, Nguyen Huy, Top Researchers at VASS.

The session was held in the form of a panel, “Looking into Latest Developments of the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia”, to answer the following questions: 1) What are the latest developments in the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia regions? 2) What are the geopolitical factors influencing the new geopolitics of the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia?

Here are the most important issues touched upon at the session:

• Iran and Vietnam are located at two geopolitically important regions of the world. Therefore, the developments in the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia can have great impacts on the international equations and any kind of instability and insecurity in these regions can endanger world security.
• At present, the two issues of corona pandemic and economic recession are main challenges in Southeast Asia. In other words, the corona pandemic has not only had much negative impact on the people of this region, but economic development, especially in tourism, has faced this region with serious challenges.
• The China/US rivalry in Southeast Asia is a feature of this region, which has profound impacts on the region’s security and economic issues. Also, some regional integration processes within the framework of regional organizations like ASEAN and RCEP are considered as main cooperation approaches among the region’s countries.
• Security is to some extent fragile in Southeast Asia and influenced by two major and minor factors. Major factors include the China/US rivalry, the Covid-19 crisis, the Myanmar crisis, and minor factors include differing national interests among the ASEAN member states, their differing stances regarding China and the US, lack of regulating institutes, complexities of the South China Sea issues and the Environmental concerns.
• The most pressing issue regarding the Persian Gulf is lack of balance on the national and regional levels. Therefore, sustainable security in the Persian Gulf is shaped through cooperation among the region’s countries. Realization of this requires reliance on domestic capabilities than foreign support, and also it takes dialogue among the neighbors for solving the problems to return the region to a relative balance .
• In the last years, the US destructive role in the region has caused instability and insecurity. This is while the Islamic Republic of Iran has always tried to play a constructive role in the regional crises to restore sustainable peace and security to the region.