Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
obligation - 2 years (2004)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 21,341,813 (2005 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 16,032,358 (2005 est.)
Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 915,572 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$650 million (FY98)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
2.5% (FY98)
Transnational Issues Vietnam
Disputes - international:
southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check
the spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Laos protest Vietnamese
squatters and armed encroachments along border; in 2004
Laotian-Vietnamese boundary commission agrees to erect missing
markers in two adjoining provinces; demarcation of the China-Vietnam
boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary
delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in June 2004,
implementation has been delayed; China occupies Paracel Islands also
claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; involved in complex dispute with
China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and possibly Brunei over the
Spratly Islands; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
the South China Sea" has eased tensions but falls short of a legally
binding "code of conduct" desired by several of the disputants;
Vietnam continues to expand construction of facilities in the
Spratly Islands; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China,
the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine
seismic activities in the Spratly Islands
Illicit drugs:
minor producer of opium poppy; probable minor transit point for
Southeast Asian heroin; domestic opium/heroin/methamphetamine
addiction problems
This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005