The Vietnamese government has given approval to US billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to provide its Starlink satellite internet service to users in the country on a trial basis until 2030.

During the trial run, SpaceX is allowed to retain full ownership of its service, but it will be controlled by the Vietnamese government, it states, “to ensure national defence and security”.

The approved service includes the provision of fixed satellite and mobile satellite services, with the latter to be used at sea and on airplanes. The maximum number of subscribers to pilot the service is set at 600,000, including those that are subscribers of companies established in Vietnam and telecommunications firms reselling services to companies in the country.

Allowing SpaceX – whose owner is close to US President Trump and heads his newly created Department of Government Efficiency – to launch its service is seen by some observers as one of the measures the country is taking to avoid being hit by looming US tariffs. Other measures include buying more Boeing aircraft and importing US liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) for Vietnam’s clean energy transition.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, head of the Vietnamese Finance Ministry’s tax policy department, says that the Vietnamese tariff on American LNG, as part of a new plan, will be cut to 2% from 5%, on automobiles to 32% from a range of 45% to 64% and on ethanol to 5% from 10%.

Hanoi’s trade surplus with Washington exceeded US$123 billion in 2024, a fact that exposes Vietnam to threats by Trump to impose tariffs on any nation with which the US has a deficit.

The US and Vietnam announced a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2023 during then-president Joe Biden’s visit to Hanoi. However, the two countries have to date not signed a free-trade agreement, although in 2000 they signed in a bilateral trade agreement that covers trade in goods, protection of intellectual property rights, trade in services, investment protection, business facilitation and transparency.