Relations between Russia and Vietnam strengthened during Putin’s visit to Hanoi

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to strengthen bilateral ties with Vietnam on Thursday in the second leg of an Asian tour aimed at countering efforts by Western powers to isolate his country over its invasion of Ukraine.

Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday morning after an extraordinary visit to Pyongyang, whose head of state Kim Jong Un hailed him as his country’s “best friend”.

The Russian President, who met key Vietnamese leaders, declared, “Russia attaches great importance to strengthening relations with Vietnam.”

The two sides signed a dozen agreements mainly in energy, education and civil nuclear sectors.

The joint statement highlighted the “warm and friendly” atmosphere of the discussions and the “high level of trust and mutual understanding”.

Hanoi also hopes to “promote defense and security cooperation” with Moscow, Vietnamese President To Lam stressed.

– Flexible diplomacy –

The Russian President was given a ceremonial welcome at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi with a gun salute and soldiers in saluting position.

Russian flags adorned the streets of the Vietnamese capital’s historic centre, where a significant security detail maintained order and tried to control usually chaotic vehicle traffic.

Putin later met Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh as well as Communist Party 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 head of state also laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the father of independence, who initiated the establishment of ties with Russia since the 1920s.

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.

One expert warned that this policy could be difficult to follow.

Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the Asia programme at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that Putin’s visit is “a test” to see “how far Hanoi’s multidimensional diplomacy can go and whether it is still accepted by other major powers.”

At a forum published by the local press on Wednesday, the Russian head of state thanked Vietnam, which was absent during the UN vote condemning the invasion of Ukraine, for its “balanced” approach to the issue.

Mykhailo Podolyak, one of the main advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, considered Putin’s current tour to be a visit to “former satellites of the USSR” aimed at receiving “military and technical assistance and cannon fodder.”

In the previous leg of Putin’s trip, Russia and North Korea, both under Western sanctions, concluded a “global strategic partnership” that provides for mutual assistance “in case of aggression” and potential strengthening of “military-technical cooperation” against the Russian ruler.

The United States and its allies fear the rapprochement will lead to fresh supplies of North Korean ammunition and missiles to the Russian military for the war in Ukraine.

Japan on Thursday expressed its “serious concerns” about the deal, while the European Union approved a new package of sanctions against Russia.

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