Meeting with Dr.Jurgen Haacke (Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, London School of Economics, University of London)

The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC) is a cross-disciplinary, regionally-focused academic centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. SEAC seeks to foster world-leading academic and policy research with a focus on the Southeast Asian social and political landscape. SEAC promotes and draws from a rich pool of research undertaken by Southeast Asia experts across disciplines at LSE and pursue collaboration with colleagues around the world, with the aim of informing officials and policy makers in governments, and stakeholders in business and civil society on key issues and challenges in relation to the region through its research. It also hosts joint research workshops with academic partners at LSE and in the region, thereby developing a network of Southeast Asian scholars. Thus, in this visit, Dr. Jurgen Haacke would like to discuss with USSH's scholars and researchers about the issues concerning Southeast Asia in general and Vietnam in particular.

In response, Prof. Dr Pham Quang Minh said he was honored to welcome and willing to share his knowledge and perspectives with Dr. Jurgen Haacke, which he said was in conjunction with USSH's strategy of internationalization and strengthening international relations. The two professors then discussed in an open and friendly way about such issues as Vietnam's policy towards the UK in relation with that towards other countries and territories; Vietnam's views on the UK's role in Southeast Asia's regional order; the possibility of establishing a comprehensive dialogue partnership between the UK and ASEAN; and Vietnam's policies and viewpoints on the issue of military alignment.

The London School of Economics is a public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. The LSE has more than 10,000 students and 3,300 staff, just under half of whom come from outside the UK. The School offers over 140 MSc programmes, 5 MPA programmes, an LLM, 30 BSc programmes, an LLB, 4 BA programmes (including International History and Geography), and 35 PhD programmes.