Vietnam, or Dai Viet (Great Viet) as named under Ly dynasty, had diplomatic relations with its neighbours, including China, Champa and Chenla. It pursued a peace-loving foreign policy, while resolutely resisting foreign aggression. The foreign policy was aimed at building and upholding friendship among neighbouring countries for the purpose of creating and maintaining a peaceful environment for national construction and defence. | Vietnam Social Sciences, (179) - 2017 Dai Viet Diplomatic Relations with Neighbouring Countries under Ly Dynasty Nguyen Thanh Binh1 1 University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Email: nguyenthanhbinhtriet@ Received: 8 March, 2017. Accepted: 30 March, 2017. Abstract: Vietnam, or Dai Viet (Great Viet) as named under Ly dynasty, had diplomatic relations with its neighbours, including China, Champa and Chenla. It pursued a peace-loving foreign policy, while resolutely resisting foreign aggression. The foreign policy was aimed at building and upholding friendship among neighbouring countries for the purpose of creating and maintaining a peaceful environment for national construction and defence. Keywords: Diplomatic relations, Ly dynasty, Song dynasty, Champa, Chenla, Laos. 1. Introduction In the political life under the Ly dynasty (1009-1225), an extremely important aspect was the diplomatic relations between Dai Viet and its neighbouring countries, including China, Champa (also known as Chiem Thanh), Chenla (or Chan Lap), Siam (now Thailand), Ai Lao (now Laos), etc. The recognition by the feudal state in Vietnam under the Ly dynasty (and, subsequently, the Tran dynasty) of the importance of the relations, and their handling were viewed as tasks of government, which would exert decisively significant impacts on the success or failure of the national construction and development as well as the safeguarding of national independence. Regarding this aspect, in the section titled “Bang giao chí” (“Foreign Relations Records”) in Lịch triều hiến chương 54 loại chí (Regulations of Successive Dynasties by Subject-Matter), Phan Huy Chu remarked emphatically: “In government, a major task is to have friendly relations (lit. relations of harmony/concord) with neighbouring countries; the way we treat and behave towards them is very important, which cannot be disregarded; thus, the ties of peace mentioned in Chunjiu (Spring
