Hello friend: Putin speaking to Lam during his visit to Hanoi. — AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a series of deals with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset growing international isolation over its military actions in Ukraine.
The two signed agreements to further cooperation on education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and health. They also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology centre in Vietnam.
Following the talks, Putin said that the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific Region based on not using force and peacefully settling disputes with no room for “closed military-political blocs”.
Vietnam’s new President To Lam congratulated Putin on his re-election and praised Russia’s “domestic political stability”.
Putin arrived in Hanoi early yesterday from North Korea, where he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed an agreement that pledges 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 as both face escalating standoffs with the West.
Putin drove to Vietnam’s Presidential Palace yesterday afternoon, where he was greeted by school children waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.
There, he shook hands with and embraced Lam before a bilateral meeting and a joint briefing to the media.
He met Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh later in the afternoon and is also scheduled to meet Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong – Vietnam’s most powerful politician – and parliamentary chief Tran Thanh Man.
All in order: Vietnamese soldiers getting ready before the start of a welcome ceremony for Putin at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. — AFP
Russia is keen to maintain “close and effective cooperation” in energy, industry, technology, education, security and trade, said Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Gennady S. Bezdetko on Wednesday, according to Vietnamese official media.
Much has changed since Putin’s last visit to Vietnam in 2017. Russia now faces a raft of US-led sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.
In 2023, the International Criminal Court in Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes.
The Kremlin rejected it as “null and void,” stressing that Moscow doesn’t recognise the court’s jurisdiction.
Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break the international isolation,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
The US and its allies have expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its use in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programme.
Both countries deny accusations of weapons transfers, which would violate multiple UN Security Council sanctions that Russia previously endorsed.
Meanwhile, Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons, Giang said: It is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the South-East Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain its sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.
Hanoi and Moscow have had 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 in a park where kids skateboard every evening.
Many of the Communist Party’s top leadership in Vietnam also studied in Soviet universities, including party chief Trong. — AP
