Putin vows to strengthen ties with Vietnam during state visit

Vladimir Putin began a state visit to Vietnam on Thursday, a day after signing a defense deal with North Korea, which Russia has been supplying arms to for decades, worrying Westerners.

“Russia attaches great importance to strengthening relations with Vietnam,” the Russian president said after a bilateral meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam.

“We have expressed mutual interest in creating a credible and adequate security architecture in the Asia-Pacific that is based on the principles of non-resort to force, peaceful resolution of disputes and where there is no place for closed political-military blocs”, he claimed.

Hanoi and Moscow have signed a dozen agreements in justice, education or civil nuclear energy. Vietnam also hopes to “boost defense and security cooperation,” To Lam said.

Relations between Russia and Vietnam have their historical roots in the wars involving the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which benefited from the military support of its Soviet “big brother” to defeat the capitalist South and unify the country in 1975.

Moscow remains Vietnam’s main arms supplier, but volumes have declined in recent years, despite growing tensions in the South China Sea, where Hanoi fears Beijing’s expansionist goals.

Putin arrived in Vietnam on Thursday morning after an extraordinary visit to Pyongyang, where Kim Jong Un regards him as North Korea’s “best friend.”

According to Putin, the two countries, subject to Western sanctions, have struck a “comprehensive strategic partnership” that provides for mutual assistance “in the event of aggression” and the potential strengthening of “military-technical cooperation.”

The United States and its allies fear this quick rapprochement could lead to new deliveries of North Korean munitions and missiles to Russia for the war in Ukraine.

Japan said on Thursday it was “seriously concerned” about the deal and the European Union approved a new package of sanctions against Moscow.

– Flexible diplomacy –

After his triumphant welcome in North Korea, Putin was given a more formal welcome at the presidential palace in Hanoi, complete with artillery fire and troops.

Russian flags and significant security equipment were seen on the streets of Hanoi to welcome him.

Putin later plans to meet CPV General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is considered the most influential figure in the regime. The 80-year-old leader spent part of his studies in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

The Russian leader will also attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnamese independence, as well as a banquet at the Opera House, a colonial-style building. He plans to leave the country this Thursday night.

Welcoming Putin to Vietnam, the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), could upset his Western allies, starting with the United States, which considers the Asian country of 100 million inhabitants strategic for manufacturing and the production of semiconductors, among others.

Last year, both Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden visited Hanoi. The country tries to maintain equidistant distance between the two rival superpowers, in accordance with the flexible principles of its so-called “bamboo diplomacy” that combines prudence and pragmatism.

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