With 96 embassies and consulates, Vietnam is ranked 38th in the world and 10th in Asia, according to the index released by Lowy Institute Wednesday.
Compared to 2017, the number of foreign missions maintained by Vietnam has remained unchanged, but it was overtaken by Thailand after it opened two new consulates.
China (276 posts) overtook the United States (273 posts) to become the country with the highest number of diplomatic posts in the world. Following close behind are France (267), Japan (247) and Russia (242).
The bottom three countries are Luxembourg (37), Iceland (25) and Bhutan (9).
In Asia, economies with higher diplomatic reach than Vietnam are China, Japan, India (186 posts), South Korea (183), Indonesia (132), Pakistan (117), Taiwan (107) and Thailand (98).
The Lowy Institute, an Australian independant thinktank which aims to provide high quality research and distintive perspectives in international studies, publishes the Global Diplomacy Index to visualise international diplomatic networks. The index includes 43 countries in the G20 and OECD, 17 countries and territories in Asia, and Latvia.
2019 is the third time the index is published. Previous publications were in 2016 and 2017.