President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia wrapped up a state go to to 1 ally, North Korea, and moved on to a different, Vietnam, arriving early Thursday hoping to shore up essential partnerships within the area as he wages a protracted battle in Ukraine.
Mr. Putin’s battle in Ukraine has left him remoted from the West, and his want for munitions to combat that battle has pushed him nearer to North Korea and its chief, Kim Jong-un. The 2 leaders have bonded over their frequent historic opponent, the US, and on Wednesday revived a Chilly Warfare-era mutual protection pledge between their nations.
In Vietnam, against this, Mr. Putin met with officers who’ve not too long ago cast deeper bonds with Washington. However Moscow has lengthy been Hanoi’s principal supply of weapons, and Mr. Putin is eager to carry on to that place.
It’s Mr. Putin’s fifth go to to Vietnam and follows journeys final 12 months by President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China, two leaders who sought assurances from Hanoi that it was not taking the opposite’s facet.
For Vietnam, Mr. Putin’s journey might be a chance to solidify ties with Russia, its most essential protection companion. Although it has upgraded relations with the US, Vietnam was nonetheless in search of secret methods final 12 months to buy Russian army gear in contravention of American sanctions.
On Thursday morning, in typical scripted vogue, Vietnamese schoolchildren — waving each the Russian and Vietnamese flags — lined the Hanoi streets as Mr. Putin’s motorcade drove by. He was greeted by Vietnam’s newly put in president, To Lam, who gave him a hug.
Later, Mr. Putin was given a 21-gun salute on the Imperial Citadel of Thang Lengthy, an essential historic website within the heart of the capital. A army band performed the nationwide anthems of each nations. The 2 leaders will maintain a information convention after the talks are over, in accordance with Vietnamese state media.
Washington has rebuked Hanoi for inviting the Russian chief, saying, “No nation ought to give Putin a platform to advertise his battle of aggression and in any other case permit him to normalize his atrocities.”
This week, Mr. Lam informed the native Russian envoy that Hanoi “at all times considers Russia one of many high precedence companions in its international coverage.”
Right here’s what to learn about relations between Moscow and Hanoi.
Russia and Vietnam have deep army ties.
In 1950, the Soviet Union was among the many first nations to present diplomatic recognition to what was then the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or North Vietnam. Over many years, Moscow turned Vietnam’s largest donor, offering army support when Hanoi was preventing its wars towards France and the US.
The protection relationship has underpinned many ties between the 2 nations, which through the years additionally shared communist ideology. Mr. Putin arrived in Vietnam together with his new protection minister, Andrei R. Belousov, underscoring how safety issues are central to the go to.
Russian gear represents about 60 % to 70 % of Vietnam’s protection arsenal, in accordance with Nguyen The Phuong, who research Vietnam’s army affairs on the College of New South Wales in Australia. Russia has equipped Vietnam with coastal protection missile techniques, six Kilo-class submarines, fighter jets and plenty of extra deadly weapons.
Almost all of Vietnam’s naval vessels come from Russia, in accordance with Mr. Phuong. Russia’s T-90 tanks, which have been the last-known main buy of Russian arms by Vietnam in 2016, type the spine of Vietnam’s armored forces, he added. Because of this Vietnam remains to be going to be reliant on Russia within the years to come back.
Vietnam has regarded past Russia for weapons.
However the imposition of Western sanctions on Moscow has elevated issues in Hanoi about Russia’s reliability as a provider, and made it more and more awkward for Vietnam to proceed coping with Russia because it engages with the West.
Lots of Vietnam’s leaders are additionally conscious of the Russian army’s struggles towards Ukraine — footage has proven the T-90 tanks being blown aside by drones utilized by Ukraine. They’re additionally cognizant of Russia’s deepening relationship with China, which they regard as a menace due to a longstanding territorial dispute within the South China Sea.
In current months, it has turned to nations like South Korea, Japan and the Czech Republic as various sources of weapons. It has additionally tried to construct up its personal protection trade. It has regarded to India, one other former Soviet ally, to retrofit a few of its weapons.
The US has been actively providing extra weapons to Vietnam, with senior officers touring to the nation in current months. However analysts say the highest echelons of Vietnam’s protection management stay suspicious of Washington. They’re reluctant to tie their destiny to a rustic the place arms gross sales need to be handed by way of a Congress that might make the deal contingent on human rights.
The 2 nations have joint ventures within the oil enterprise.
Russia has a big stake in Vietnam’s profitable oil and gasoline sector. Vietsovpetro, a three way partnership run by Russia’s Zarubezhneft and Vietnam’s state-owned PetroVietnam, operates Vietnam’s largest oil subject, Bach Ho.
The income from Vietsovpetro have generated tens of millions of {dollars} for each Russia and Vietnam. Zarubezhneft and Gazprom, one other Russian state-owned vitality agency, are additionally concerned in oil exploration tasks in Vietnam.
For Moscow, these tasks come at a time when Russian oil and gasoline exports to Europe have plummeted following the imposition of sanctions from the European Union. However they’ve irked Beijing as a result of they’re in waters that it contends are a part of its territory.
Earlier than the coronavirus pandemic, Vietnam was additionally a very engaging vacation spot for Russian vacationers. In 2019, Russia despatched the sixth-highest variety of vacationers of any nation to Vietnam, simply after the US. However the numbers dropped in the course of the pandemic and fell additional after Vietnam stopped direct flights in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Direct flights resumed this 12 months.
Mr. Putin is seen as well-liked with the Vietnamese brass.
Starting within the Fifties, 1000’s of Vietnamese Communist Get together officers, high enterprise officers, docs, lecturers and troopers have been educated within the Soviet Union and Russia. That record consists of the present get together chief, Nguyen Phu Trong.
However some felt these deep ties have been ignored by the final Soviet chief, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, and Russia’s first president, Boris N. Yeltsin.
“The Vietnamese really feel that Gorbachev within the Nineteen Eighties deserted Vietnam in an effort to enhance relations with China; Yeltsin, all by way of the 90s, barely paid any consideration to Vietnam,” mentioned Ian Storey, a senior fellow on the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “As soon as Putin was in energy in 2000, he gave a whole lot of face to it. So the Vietnamese are grateful for that.”
He added that the Vietnamese management appreciated Mr. Putin as a result of “he put Vietnam-Russia relations again on observe.”
Paul Sonne and Damien Cave contributed reporting.
