Putin signs deal with Vietnam to strengthen ties with Asia to offset Moscow’s growing isolation | Wilnesh News

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed at least a dozen agreements with his Vietnamese counterpart and offered to supply fossil fuels including natural gas to Vietnam during a state visit, as Moscow seeks to strengthen ties with Asia to offset its growing sense of international isolation. war in ukraine.

Putin and President Carrie Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, technology, oil and gas exploration, clean energy and other fields. The two countries also agreed to formulate a road map for the Vietnam Nuclear Science and Technology Center.

Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none have openly addressed defence, but Carrie Lam said there were others that had not been made public.

Putin said that the two countries have common interests in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region and will not allow the emergence of “closed military-political blocs.” Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam hope to “further cooperate in the fields of defense and security to address non-traditional security challenges.”

The agreement between Russia and Vietnam is not as substantial as an agreement. Putin signs agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un On Wednesday, the group pledged to assist each other in the event of an invasion, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow on Russia and Eurasia at the Institute for International Strategic Studies in London and a former British ambassador to Belarus.

Putin’s recent visit to China Now North Korea and Vietnam are trying to “break their international isolation,” said Nguyen Kha Giang, an analyst at the Yusof Issa Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

Jiang said Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons: Russia is the Southeast Asian country’s largest supplier of military equipment and its oil exploration technology helps safeguard Vietnam’s claims in disputed areas. South China Sea.

Vietnam has also authorized Russian state-owned oil company Zarubezhneft to develop an offshore block off its southeastern coast.

According to Vietnamese official media reports, on the South China Sea issue, Carrie Lam said that the two sides will “support and ensure safety, freedom of navigation and overflight” and resolve disputes peacefully in accordance with international law without the use of force.

Putin arrived from Hanoi on Thursday morning North Korea after signing strategic agreementThe move comes as the two countries face an escalating confrontation with the West and could mark their strongest ties since the end of the Cold War.

According to Vietnam’s official news agency, Putin also met with Vietnam’s most powerful politicians, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi.

On Thursday afternoon, Putin drove to Vietnam’s presidential palace, where he was greeted by schoolchildren waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.

Much has changed since Putin last visited Vietnam in 2017. A series of U.S.-led sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued Arrest warrant for Putin Suspected war crimes have made it difficult for the Russian leader to travel abroad. The Kremlin rejected the search warrant as “invalid” and stressed that Moscow did not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

Putin’s trip was severely reprimanded by the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, stating that “no country should provide Putin with a platform to promote aggressive war, otherwise it will allow him to normalize atrocities.” It said in a statement that allowing Putin to travel freely “could normalize Russia’s flagrant violations of international law.”

The United States and its allies have expressed their stance growing concerns North Korea may provide Russia with much-needed munitions in Ukraine in exchange for economic aid and technology transfers from Russia, which could increase the threat posed by Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Both countries deny accusations of arms transfers that would violate multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions Russia has previously endorsed.

Rizwan Rahmat, an analyst at defense intelligence firm Janes in Singapore, said Vietnam was unlikely to provide Russia with large quantities of weapons that would affect its progress on military equipment with NATO members, especially the United States.

“I don’t think Vietnam is willing to take the risk of incurring the wrath of Western countries by supplying products to Russia,” Rahmat said.

Hanoi and Moscow have established diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of “Friendly Relations” between Vietnam and Russia. Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow in the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, said Vietnam is “strengthening” the relationship even as it diversifies with new partners.

Evidence of this long-standing relationship and its influence can be seen in Vietnamese cities such as the capital, where many Soviet-style apartment complexes are now dwarfed by skyscrapers. a statue Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, standing in the park where kids skateboard every night. Many senior leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam had studied at Soviet universities, including Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

In an article written for the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Putin thanked “Vietnamese friends for their balanced stance on the Ukraine crisis” and praised Vietnam as a “staunch supporter of a fair world order” based on international law. Geopolitical non-interference.

Vietnam’s pragmatic “bamboo diplomacy” policy is being increasingly tested.

Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse and increasingly important player in global supply chains, hosts U.S. president Joe Biden and Chinese leaders Xi Jinping 2023.

Former ambassador Gould-Davis said Putin’s visit was of great significance to Hanoi at a diplomatic level.

“Maybe for Vietnam it just shows that it can maintain this very flexible balance of bamboo diplomacy,” he said. “In the space of a year, they have hosted visits from heads of state of three of the most powerful countries in the world, which is impressive.”

He said the visit appeared to be more about optics than anything else for Russia, as Moscow seeks to reach out and influence other countries, particularly those in the so-called Global South.

“Putin has not been able to travel much or too far since the war began, and he has rarely traveled outside countries in the former Soviet Union,” he said.

Vietnam remains neutral on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But neutrality is getting trickier

Parameswaran said Vietnam needs U.S. support to advance its economic ambitions and diversify defense ties. “It must carefully calibrate its relationship with Russia in an environment of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.”

In 2023, bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam totaled $3.6 billion, while bilateral trade with China was $171 billion and bilateral trade with the United States was $111 billion.

Since the early 2000s, Russia has accounted for about 80% of Vietnam’s arms imports. This number has been declining for years as Vietnam attempts to diversify its supply. But Jiang said it will take time to completely break away from dependence on Russia.

Australia’s ambassador to Vietnam, Andrew Goledzinowski, wrote on social media platform Expect something in return.”

“Vietnam will always act in Vietnam’s interests and no one else’s,” he wrote.