With Nguyen Phu Trong gone, are EU-Vietnam ties at risk?

Vietnam’s new leaders, including recently installed President To Lam, have little interest in breaking with Hanoi’s tried-and-tested foreign policy of balancing between all powers, analysts say.

But their lack of experience in international diplomacy, and their likely escalation of human rights violations, could trigger an overdue debate within Europe about ties with the economically booming but politically repressive one-party state.

Both Brussels and Hanoi are trying to project…