Putin signs deals with Vietnam in bid to shore up ties in Asia – NewsNation

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a series of agreements with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam on Thursday during a state visit that comes as Moscow seeks to bolster ties in Asia to compensate for growing international isolation due to its military actions in Ukraine.

The two signed agreements to deepen cooperation in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and health. They also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.

After the talks, Putin said that the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region, based on the non-use of force and the peaceful resolution of disputes, with no room for “closed political-military blocs ”.

Vietnam’s new president, To Lam, congratulated Putin on his re-election and praised Russia’s “internal political stability”.

Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam wanted to “further cooperate in defense and security to deal with non-traditional security challenges”, to implement energy projects and expand investments.

Putin also met with Vietnam’s most powerful politician, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, as well as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to the official Vietnam News Agency. He is also expected to meet parliamentary chief Tran Thanh Man.

Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday morning from North Korea, where he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement promising mutual aid in the event of war. The strategic pact that could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War comes at a time when both face increasing impasses with the West.

Putin drove to Vietnam’s Presidential Palace on Thursday afternoon, where he was greeted by schoolchildren waving Russian and Vietnamese flags. There, he shook hands and hugged Lam before a bilateral meeting and joint media briefing.

Russia wants to maintain “close and effective cooperation” in energy, industry, technology, education, security and trade, Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Gennady S. Bezdetko said on Wednesday, according to official Vietnamese media outlets.

The trip resulted in a strong rebuke from the US Embassy in the country.

Much has changed since Putin’s last visit to Vietnam in 2017. Russia now faces a series of US-led sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes. The Kremlin rejected it as “null and void”, stressing that Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break international isolation,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

The United States and its allies have expressed growing concerns about a possible arms deal in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for use in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could increase the threat posed by its nuclear weapons and missile program. by Kim. .

Both countries deny accusations of arms transfers, which would violate multiple UN Security Council sanctions that Russia has previously endorsed.

Meanwhile, Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons, Giang said: It is the largest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain its sovereignty claims in the contested South Sea. South China.

“Russia is signaling that it is not isolated in Asia, despite the war in Ukraine, and Vietnam is reinforcing a fundamental traditional relationship, while also diversifying ties with new partners,” said Prashanth Parameswaran, Program Fellow. for Asia at the Wilson Center.

Vietnam is unlikely to supply significant quantities of weapons to Russia because doing so would jeopardize the progress the country has made with NATO members on military equipment, especially the US, which has donated naval patrol ships and is in talks to supply aircraft, Ridzwan said. Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst at defense intelligence firm Janes.

“There is progress that you wouldn’t have imagined just 10 years ago,” he said. “So I imagine Vietnam wouldn’t want to take any risks by drawing the ire of Western countries by supplying the Russians.”

Hanoi and Moscow have maintained diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year marks 30 years of a treaty establishing “friendly relations” between Vietnam and Russia.

Evidence of this long relationship and its influence can be seen in Vietnamese cities like the capital, where the many Soviet-style apartment blocks are now dwarfed by skyscrapers and a statue of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, stands tall. if in a park where kids skateboard every night. Many of the top leaders of the Communist Party in Vietnam studied at Soviet universities, including party chief Trong.

In an article written for Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Putin promised to deepen ties between Moscow and Hanoi and hailed Vietnam as a “strong defender of a just world order based on international law, the principles of equality of all States and non-interference in their internal affairs.”

He also thanked “Vietnamese friends for their balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis”, in the article released by the Kremlin.

Given Putin’s international isolation, Vietnam is doing the Russian leader a “huge favor and can expect favors in return,” wrote Andrew Goledzinowski, the Australian ambassador to Vietnam, on the social media platform X. He said it would have been difficult for Vietnam declined the visit because Putin was already in Asia and Vietnam has historical ties to the former Soviet Republic, but said the two were unlikely to become strategic partners again. “Vietnam will always act in the interests of Vietnam and not in the interests of anyone else,” he wrote.

Vietnam’s pragmatic policy of “bamboo diplomacy” – a phrase coined by Trong referring to the factory’s flexibility, which bends but does not break in the face of shifting headwinds of global geopolitics – is increasingly being tested.

An industrial powerhouse and an increasingly important player in global supply chains, Vietnam welcomed US President Joe Biden and the leader of rival China, Xi Jinping, in 2023.

Vietnam remained neutral regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But neutrality is becoming more complicated, with the US Embassy in Hanoi criticizing Putin’s visit, saying that “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and allow him to normalize his atrocities.” If Putin is allowed to travel freely, it “could normalize Russia’s flagrant violations of international law,” the statement said.

Vietnam needs US support to advance its economic ambitions and diversify its defense ties, Parameswaran said. “It has to carefully calibrate what it does with Russia in an environment of growing tensions between Washington and Moscow.”

Bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam was $3.6 billion in 2023, compared to $171 billion with China and $111 billion with America.

Since the early 2000s, Russia has accounted for about 80% of Vietnam’s arms imports. This value has declined over the years due to Vietnamese attempts to diversify their supplies. But moving away from Russia entirely will take time, Giang said.

___

AP Writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.