Vietnam and the EU upgrade ties as US tariffs reshape global trade

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam and the European Union on Thursday upgraded ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, Vietnam’s highest diplomatic level, as both recalibrate trade amid disruptions to global finance driven by U.S. tariff pressure.

The upgrade places the EU on the same diplomatic footing as the United States, China and Russia and was announced during a visit to Hanoi by European Council President António Costa.

“At a moment when the international rules-based order is under threat from multiple sides, we need to stand side by side as reliable and predictable partners,” Costa said, adding that the partnership is about “developing spheres of shared prosperity.”

Costa arrived in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi after India and the European Union reached a free trade agreement on Tuesday after nearly two decades of negotiation.

Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong called the move a “historic milestone.”

The announcement comes less than a week after Vietnam reelected Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as the country’s top leader, endorsing his vision of economic growth driven by aggressive reforms.

Vietnam has been a major beneficiary of globalization, emerging as a key export hub for electronics, garments and consumer goods as multinational firms shifted production away from China.

That export-led growth has helped lift incomes and transform the economy, but Vietnam’s large and persistent trade surplus has drawn criticism, particularly from the U.S. and increasingly from Europe, where officials have raised concerns about market access.

For the EU, the deal strengthens access to one of Asia’s fastest-growing manufacturing hubs and supports efforts to diversify supply chains as trade tensions increase.

Bilateral trade in the first 11 months of 2025 reached more than $66.8 billion, up 6.6% from a year earlier. The EU is Vietnam’s fourth-largest trading partner, third-largest export market and fifth-largest import source. Vietnam is the EU’s biggest trading partner in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam hopes to continue growth to become a rich nation by 2045 and is aggressively seeking new markets to reduce reliance on the U.S., which is its largest export destination that absorbs about 30% of the goods Vietnam sends abroad. The two sides signed a free trade agreement in 2020.

European Council President Antonio Costa, left, and Vietnamese President Luong Cuong shake hands in Hanoi, Vietnam, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Bui Lam Khanh/VNA via AP)

European Council President Antonio Costa, left, and Vietnamese President Luong Cuong hug after a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Bui Lam Khanh/VNA via AP)

European Council President Antonio Costa, left, and Vietnamese President Luong Cuong hug after a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Bui Lam Khanh/VNA via AP)

A man was arrested after repeatedly crashing his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City on Wednesday night while people were gathered for prayer at the deeply revered Hasidic Jewish site.

No one was injured when the driver struck a door of a building in the complex before reversing and striking it several more times. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that while it was too early in the investigation to speculate on the driver's motives, the incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

“This is deeply alarming, especially given the deep meaning and the history of the institution to so many in New York and around the world,” said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the crash “intentional."

Video of the crash that was posted online shows a car with New Jersey license plates moving forward and backward on an icy driveway leading to a building in the complex and ramming its basement-level doors.

The driver, who is wearing shorts, emerges, shouts to bystanders that “It slipped” and says something to police about trying to park.

Chabad Lubavitch spokesperson Motti Seligson said some of the doors were damaged in the crash.

The Chabad Lubavitch headquarters and synagogue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood receives thousands of visitors annually. Its Gothic Revival facade is very recognizable to adherents of the Chabad movement and has inspired dozens of replicas across the world.

Commonly referred to as 770, a nod to the Eastern Parkway address of the complex’s original building, the headquarters encompasses multiple adjacent structures.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called the crash “disturbing and unacceptable.”

“This could have been much worse and I’m grateful that no one was hurt," he said in a post on social platform X. "My office is working closely with the NYPD to ensure justice is done and the community is safe.”

Neither bombs nor any other weapons were found in the car that hit the building, according to Tisch. She said it was also too early in the investigation to comment on the driver's mental state.

The incident happened on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Schneerson died in 1994 but remains a revered figure globally.

There has been a near constant police presence around 770 Eastern Parkway for years.

The site was at the epicenter of the Crown Heights riots in 1991, when Black residents of the neighborhood attacked Jews after a child was killed by a car traveling in Schneerson's motorcade. In 2014, a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student, wounding him, before being shot dead by police.

FILE - A man passes the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, April 7, 2020 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)