Putin’s visit expands ties with Vietnam and causes retaliation from the West

Vietnam is preparing this Wednesday (19) to roll out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in a visit seen as a publicity stunt for the Russian president, accused of war crimes in Ukraine, at the same time as bringing benefits and risks for the leaders. Hanoi communists.

Putin is expected to arrive in the capital on Wednesday night after leaving a visit to Pyongyang, where he hugged North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Although both North Korea and Russia face international isolation, Vietnam has built careful alliances with the United States and the European Union. The United States has already condemned the fact that Hanoi welcomed the Russian leader.

That makes Putin’s trip stop especially important for the Russian leader, said Alexander Vuving of the Hawaii-based Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

“Russia wants to send the message that it has friends all over the world and that the West’s effort to isolate Russia is futile,” Vuving said, adding that Hanoi has its own interests beyond the two countries’ shared communist roots. .

“Russia plays a unique and critical role in Vietnam’s foreign policy,” he said, noting that Moscow has been a major arms supplier to Hanoi.

Russia was hit by US-led Western sanctions after invading neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 in what Moscow calls a “special military operation”. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, charges he denies.

Neither Vietnam nor Russia are members of the ICC.

Historical ties

Vietnam will be the third country Putin will visit, after China and North Korea, since taking office for a fifth term in May. He has traveled little abroad since the ICC warrant was issued.

Vietnam was preparing to welcome Putin, his first visit since 2017 and his fifth in total.

The countries have close historical ties and share communist roots. Tens of thousands of Vietnam officials studied in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, including the current head of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong.

“President Vladimir Putin is a person who has made many contributions to Vietnam-Russia relations. He always has good feelings and concern for Vietnam and values ​​relations with Vietnam’s top leaders,” the Defense Ministry’s Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper said in an article.

Key partner the United States, which improved diplomatic relations with Hanoi last year and is Vietnam’s main trading partner, opposed Putin’s visit.

“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and allow him to normalize his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the US embassy in Hanoi said this week.

“Bamboo diplomacy”

Still, Vietnam has reason to risk the wrath of other diplomatic partners with the visit, said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“Hanoi wants Putin to come for several reasons,” Storey said. “First, demonstrate that Vietnam pursues a balanced foreign policy that does not favor any of the great powers.”

The country pursues what it calls “bamboo diplomacy”, maintaining good relations with world powers, despite the animosity of these powers towards each other.

Noting that US President Joe Biden visited Vietnam, followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping a few months later, “Putin’s visit will complete the ‘Big Three’ leadership visits,” Storey said.

Russia has historically been Vietnam’s main military supplier, so announcements of any arms deals will be closely watched.

Putin is also expected to announce deals in sectors including trade, investment, technology and education, two officials told Reuters this week, although this is subject to change.

This Wednesday morning, Vietnam announced that it wants Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft to invest in green energy in the country

Source: CNN Brasil

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