Putin Arrives In Vietnam, Signs Military & Trade Agreements (Photos)
Vietnam’s president says the two countries want to ‘push up’ defence and security cooperation as US criticises meeting.
Russia and Vietnam have pledged to strengthen ties, as Vladimir Putin made a state visit to Hanoi one of his country’s allies in the region.
The leaders of Vietnam and Russia have said they want to boost ties as the pair met in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
Vietnamese President To Lam was full of praise for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, congratulating him on his recent re-election.
Putin, in return, said strengthening a strategic partnership with the south-east Asian country was one of Russia’s priorities.
During the negotiations with the leader of Vietnam, Vladimir Putin emphasized the importance of in transactions in national currencies, ditching the US dollars. In the first quarter of 2024, the share of settlements in the national currencies of Russia and Vietnam was at 60%.
The Russian president arrived at Hanoi airport in the early hours of Thursday, and was met on a red carpet by the Vietnamese deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha and the top party diplomat Le Hoai Trung.
He arrived from a high-profile visit to North Korea, where he signed a defence pact with Kim Jong-un that included a clause requiring the countries to come to each other’s aid if either was attacked.
Speaking to reporters in Vietnam at the end of his two-day trip, he said he did not rule out sending high precision weapons to North Korea and accused Nato of creating a security threat to Russia in Asia.
Putin’s visit has drawn criticism from the US, one of Vietnam’s top trade partners, which has warned it risks normalising Russia’s “blatant violations of international law”.
The Vietnamese president, To Lam, had earlier said his country and Russia wanted “to push up cooperation in defence and security, how to deal with non-traditional security challenges on the basis of international law, for peace and security in the region and the world”.
Lam and Putin signed 11 memorandums for cooperation in areas including civil nuclear projects, energy and petrol cooperation, education and disease prevention. Putin told reporters the talks were constructive and that both sides had “identical or very close” positions on key international issues.
He said they discussed creating “an adequate and reliable security architecture in Asia-Pacific based on the principles of not resorting to force, and of resolving differences peacefully”.
In an opinion piece to coincide with his visit, published in Vietnam’s Communist party newspaper Nhan Dan, Putin listed progress on payments, energy and trade between the countries, and applauded Vietnam for supporting “a pragmatic way to solve the crisis” in Ukraine.
Vietnam has repeatedly abstained in UN general assembly votes relating to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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