They are in denial of the reality they are a buffer state between the powers. It is just reality of this world that small neighbors of a power have to be neutral, if not a friend to it's powerful neighbor.
Just ask Vietnam. They learned a hard lesson of not being neutral between USSR and China. Between 1975 (right after Vietnam war) and 1989, Vietnam made alliance with USSR, became hostile to it's neighbor China. Vietnam allows USSR to build navy base which is very close to China, and even had a month long war with China. What did Vietnam learn from this bad experience? Unnecessary suffering.