- Vietnam sees Russia as strategic hedge against great powers
- Russian support for Vietnam ranges from energy to weapons
Vietnam welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin, underlining its decades-old relationship with Moscow in the face of U.S. criticism over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday from North Korea, where he signed a comprehensive strategic partnership with Kim Jong Un, who vowed to “unconditionally” support Russia in the war.
“The visit demonstrates that Vietnam actively implements its foreign policy with the spirit of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralism,” according to a statement on Vietnam’s government website.
Vietnam and Russia have ties going back decades to the Soviet Union. Hanoi is brushing aside Western criticism of its invitation to Putin, who last visited Vietnam in 2017 when it hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, in a statement Monday, said “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.”
The Russian president is expected to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and meet with officials including Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President To Lam, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Southeast Asian nation has long relied on Russia for weapons, including aircraft and submarines. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though, Vietnam has refrained from Russian arms procurements because of concerns over Western sanctions, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-putin-in-boost-to-ties-ignoring-us-criticism
