Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Vietnamese President To Lam pose for a photo at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday.
Nhac Nguyen/Pool photo via AP
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Nhac Nguyen/Pool photo via AP
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed at least a dozen agreements with his Vietnamese counterpart and offered to provide the country with long-term supplies of fossil fuels, including natural gas, during a state visit. , to offset its growing international isolation due to its military actions in Ukraine.
Putin and President Carrie Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, technology, oil and gas exploration, clean energy, health and other fields. The two countries also agreed to formulate a road map for the Vietnam Nuclear Science and Technology Center.
Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none openly addressed defence. But Carrie Lam said there were other undisclosed transactions.
After the talks, Putin said that the two countries have common interests in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region and will not allow the emergence of “closed military and political blocs.” Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam hope to “further cooperate in the fields of defense and security to address non-traditional security challenges.”
Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow on Russia and Eurasia at the National Academy of Sciences, said the agreement between Russia and Vietnam is not as important as the one Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the day before, which Pledge to provide each other aid in case of invasion.
Nguyen Kha Chiang, an analyst at the Yusof Issa Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said Putin’s recent visits to China and now to North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break international isolation.”
Jiang said Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons: Russia is the Southeast Asian country’s largest supplier of military equipment and its oil exploration technology helps safeguard Vietnam’s claims in the disputed South China Sea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Vietnamese President To Lam embrace during an official welcome ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on Thursday.
Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
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Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
Vietnam has also authorized Russian state-owned oil company Zarubezhneft to develop an offshore block off its southeastern coast.
Putin arrived in Hanoi from North Korea on Thursday morning after signing the strategic agreement.
According to Vietnam’s official news agency, Putin also met with Vietnam’s most powerful politicians, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi.
On Thursday afternoon, Putin drove to Vietnam’s presidential palace, where he was greeted by schoolchildren waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.
Much has changed since Putin last visited Vietnam in 2017. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin on suspicion of war crimes, making it difficult for the Russian leader to travel abroad. The Kremlin rejected the search warrant, calling it “invalid” and stressing that Moscow did not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.
Putin’s trip was severely reprimanded by the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, stating that “no country should provide Putin with a platform to promote aggressive war, otherwise it will allow him to normalize atrocities.” It said in a statement that allowing Putin to travel freely “could normalize Russia’s flagrant violations of international law.”
The United States and its allies have expressed growing concern about a possible arms arrangement in which North Korea provides Russia with much-needed ammunition for Ukraine in exchange for economic aid and technology transfers from Russia that could exacerbate the threat posed by Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Both countries deny accusations of arms transfers that would violate multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions Russia has previously endorsed.
Rizwan Rahmat, an analyst at defense intelligence firm Janes in Singapore, said Vietnam was unlikely to provide Russia with large quantities of weapons that would affect its progress on military equipment with NATO members, especially the United States.
“I don’t think Vietnam is willing to take the risk of incurring the wrath of Western countries by supplying products to Russia,” Rahmat said.
Hanoi and Moscow have established diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of “Friendly Relations” between Vietnam and Russia. Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow in the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, said Vietnam is “strengthening” the relationship even as it diversifies with new partners.
Evidence of this long-standing relationship and its influence can be seen in Vietnamese cities such as the capital, where many Soviet-style apartment complexes are now dwarfed by skyscrapers. A statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin stands in a park where children skateboard every evening. Many senior leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam had studied at Soviet universities, including Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
In an article written for the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Putin thanked “Vietnamese friends for their balanced stance on the Ukraine crisis” and praised Vietnam as a “staunch supporter of a fair world order” based on international law. Geopolitical non-interference.
Vietnam’s pragmatic “bamboo diplomacy” policy is being increasingly tested. “Bamboo diplomacy” is a term coined by Nguyen Phu Trong to refer to the factory’s flexibility, bending but constantly breaking amid the ever-changing headwinds of global geopolitics.
As a manufacturing powerhouse and an increasingly important player in global supply chains, Vietnam will host US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2023.
Former ambassador Gould-Davis said Putin’s visit was of great significance to Hanoi at a diplomatic level.
“Maybe for Vietnam it just shows that it can maintain this very flexible balance of bamboo diplomacy,” he said. “In the space of a year, they have hosted visits from heads of state of three of the most powerful countries in the world, which is impressive.”
He said the visit appeared to be more about optics than anything else for Russia, as Moscow seeks to reach out and influence other countries, particularly those in the so-called Global South.
“Putin has not been able to travel much or too far since the war began, and he has rarely traveled outside countries in the former Soviet Union,” he said.
Vietnam remains neutral on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But neutrality is getting trickier
Parameswaran said Vietnam needs U.S. support to advance its economic ambitions and diversify defense ties. “It must carefully calibrate its relationship with Russia in an environment of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.”
In 2023, bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam totaled $3.6 billion, while bilateral trade with China was $171 billion and bilateral trade with the United States was $111 billion.
Since the early 2000s, Russia has accounted for about 80% of Vietnam’s arms imports. This number has been declining for years as Vietnam attempts to diversify its supply. But Jiang said it will take time to completely break away from dependence on Russia.
Australia’s ambassador to Vietnam, Andrew Goledzinowski, wrote on social media platform and may expect to be rewarded”.
“Vietnam will always act in Vietnam’s interests and no one else’s,” he wrote.
