HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least 12 deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday offering long-term supplies of fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam as Russia seeks to bolster ties with Asia to compensate for growing international isolation over Vietnam's oil and gas production. Military action in Ukraine.
Putin and President Lam Thu Lam agreed to further cooperate in the fields of education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration, clean energy and health care. The two countries also agreed to work on formulating a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.
None of the 12 agreements made public explicitly relate to defense, but Lam said there are others that have not been made public.
After the meeting, Putin said the two countries shared an interest in “building a credible security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region with no room for “closed military-political blocs.” Lam added that Russia and Vietnam “want to further cooperate in the fields of defense and security to address non-traditional security challenges.”
The agreement between Russia and Vietnam Agreement The previous day, Putin signed an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledging mutual assistance in the event of an invasion, said Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and a former British ambassador to Belarus.
President Putin's Recent Visit to China And now North Korea and Vietnam are trying to “break their international isolation,” said Nguyen Khach Giang, an analyst at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
Giang said Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons: it is the Southeast Asian country's largest supplier of military equipment, and Russian oil exploration technology can help maintain Vietnam's sovereign claims in disputed areas. South China Sea.
Vietnam has also allowed Russian state oil company Zarbezhneft to develop offshore blocks on its southeast coast.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP/Minh Hoang)
Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday morning. north korea The strategic pact comes as the two countries face increasing conflict with the West and could mark the strongest relationship since the end of the Cold War.
In Hanoi, Putin also met with Vietnam's most influential politicians, Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to the state-run Vietnam News Agency.
Putin was driven to Vietnam's presidential palace on Thursday afternoon and was greeted by school children waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.
A lot has changed since President Putin visited Vietnam in 2017. Russia is now US-led series of sanctions A statement was issued condemning Russia's actions in relation to the invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague Arrest warrant for Putin The Russian government has dismissed the tribunal as “invalid”, saying it does not recognise the tribunal's jurisdiction in Moscow.
Putin's visit drew a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, which said “no country should give President Putin a platform to pursue a war of aggression or normalize his atrocities.” Allowing Putin to travel freely “could normalize Russia's blatant violations of international law,” the embassy said in a statement.
The United States and its allies Growing concerns over an arms deal that could pose a threat to Kim Jong Un's nuclear and missile programs, in which North Korea would provide Russia with badly needed weapons for use in Ukraine in exchange for Russian economic aid and technology transfers.
Both countries deny the charges of arms transfer, which would violate several UN Security Council sanctions that Russia previously approved.
Rizwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst at defense intelligence firm Jane's, said Vietnam was unlikely to supply large quantities of arms to Russia and jeopardize progress on military equipment with NATO allies, particularly the United States.
“I think Vietnam would not want to risk incurring the wrath of the West by supplying Russia,” Rahmat said.
Hanoi and Moscow have had diplomatic ties since 1950, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of a treaty establishing “friendly relations” between Vietnam and Russia. Prashant Parameswaran, a research fellow at the Wilson Center's Asia Program, said Vietnam is “strengthening” its relationships while also diversifying them with new partners.
Evidence of that long relationship and its influence can be seen in cities like the Vietnamese capital, where many of the Soviet-style apartment blocks are now dwarfed by high-rise buildings. Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Unionstands in the park where kids skateboard every night. Many of Vietnam's top Communist Party leaders, including party leader Trong, studied at Soviet universities.
In an article published in the Communist Party of Vietnam's newspaper, Nhan Định, Putin thanked our Vietnamese friends for their “balanced stance on the Ukraine crisis” and praised Vietnam as a “strong supporter of a just world order” based on international law, equality and geopolitical non-interference.
Vietnam's pragmatic policy of “bamboo diplomacy” – a term coined by Trong to refer to the flexibility of bamboo, which bends but does not break amid the shifting headwinds of global geopolitics – is increasingly being tested.
Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse and an increasingly important player in global supply chains, has been a key partner of U.S. President Donald Trump. Joe Biden Chinese Leaders Xi Jinping 2023.
Putin's visit is diplomatically significant for Hanoi, said former ambassador Gould Davis.
“Maybe what's important for Vietnam is just to show that it can maintain a very agile balance of this bamboo diplomacy,” he said. “In the space of a year, Vietnam has already hosted visits from the leaders of the three most powerful countries in the world, which is pretty impressive.”
For Russia, the visit appeared to be more about appearances than anything else, as it sought to engage and influence other countries, particularly those in the so-called Global South, he said.
“Since the war began, Putin has not been able to travel far and has barely traveled outside the former Soviet bloc countries,” he said.
Vietnam has maintained neutrality against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but neutrality is becoming increasingly difficult.
Parameswaran said Vietnam needs U.S. support to advance its economic ambitions and diversify its defense ties. “In an environment of rising tensions between Washington and Moscow, Vietnam needs to carefully calibrate its response with Russia.”
Bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam is expected to reach $3.6 billion in 2023, while trade with China will be $171 billion and with the United States $111 billion.
Since the early 2000s, Russia has accounted for about 80 percent of Vietnam's arms imports. That share has declined over the years as Vietnam has sought to diversify its sources, but it will take time to wean itself off Russia completely, Giang said.
Given Putin's international isolation, Vietnam is “doing a huge favour” to the Russian leader and may expect favours in return, Australian ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Gorezinovsky wrote on social media platform X.
“Vietnam will always act in its own interests and never in the interests of any other country,” he wrote.
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Associated Press writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
