HANOI: Russian President Vladimir Putin will go to Hanoi this week, Vietnamese and Russian state media stated on Monday, highlighting Communist-ruled Vietnam’s loyalty to Russia and triggering a U.S. rebuke.
The go to follows Hanoi avoiding a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland final weekend, whereas sending its deputy international minister to a BRICS assembly in Russia earlier final week.
Putin, who was sworn in for a fifth time simply over a month in the past, is predicted to satisfy Vietnam’s new president, To Lam, and different leaders throughout the two-day go to to Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday, officers stated.
The USA, which upgraded relations with Hanoi final 12 months and is Vietnam’s prime buying and selling accomplice, reacted harshly.
“No nation ought to give Putin a platform to advertise his warfare of aggression and in any other case permit him to normalise his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Hanoi instructed Reuters when requested in regards to the influence of the go to on ties with the USA.
“If he is ready to journey freely, it may normalize Russia’s blatant violations of worldwide legislation,” the spokesperson added, referring to the invasion of Ukraine that Putin launched in February 2022.
Vietnam’s international ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The Hague-based Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) issued in March 2023 an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged warfare crimes in Ukraine. Vietnam, Russia and the U.S. are usually not members of the ICC.
The European Union, one other key financial accomplice for Vietnam, didn’t remark forward of the go to, but it surely expressed dissatisfaction final month over Hanoi’s determination to delay a gathering with the EU envoy on Russian sanctions – a delay that officers linked to preparations for Putin’s go to.
From Hanoi’s perspective, the go to is supposed “to reveal that Vietnam pursues a balanced international coverage that doesn’t favour any of the main powers,” stated Ian Storey, senior fellow on the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, after the nation hosted Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in current months.
Vitality, arms, tech
In his first state go to to Vietnam since 2017 and his fifth in whole, Putin is predicted to announce agreements in sectors together with commerce, funding, know-how and schooling, two officers instructed Reuters, though that was topic to vary.
Nevertheless, discussions with Vietnamese leaders are prone to deal with extra delicate points, the officers stated, declining to be recognized because the matter was not public.
These talks would come with arms, of which Russia has traditionally been Vietnam’s prime provider; vitality, with Russian corporations working in Vietnamese fuel and oil fields in areas of the South China Sea claimed by China; and funds, as the 2 nations have struggled to hold out transactions due to U.S. sanctions on Russian banks, one of many officers stated.
It isn’t clear whether or not bulletins on these matters will probably be made.
“The primary points relate to shoring up financial and industrial ties, together with arms gross sales,” stated Carl Thayer, a senior knowledgeable on Vietnam safety on the Australian Defence Power Academy in Canberra.
Putin and Vietnam’s leaders will possible conform to work out rouble-dong foreign money transactions through the banking system to allow cost for items and providers, he stated.
The go to follows Hanoi avoiding a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland final weekend, whereas sending its deputy international minister to a BRICS assembly in Russia earlier final week.
Putin, who was sworn in for a fifth time simply over a month in the past, is predicted to satisfy Vietnam’s new president, To Lam, and different leaders throughout the two-day go to to Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday, officers stated.
The USA, which upgraded relations with Hanoi final 12 months and is Vietnam’s prime buying and selling accomplice, reacted harshly.
“No nation ought to give Putin a platform to advertise his warfare of aggression and in any other case permit him to normalise his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Hanoi instructed Reuters when requested in regards to the influence of the go to on ties with the USA.
“If he is ready to journey freely, it may normalize Russia’s blatant violations of worldwide legislation,” the spokesperson added, referring to the invasion of Ukraine that Putin launched in February 2022.
Vietnam’s international ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The Hague-based Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) issued in March 2023 an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged warfare crimes in Ukraine. Vietnam, Russia and the U.S. are usually not members of the ICC.
The European Union, one other key financial accomplice for Vietnam, didn’t remark forward of the go to, but it surely expressed dissatisfaction final month over Hanoi’s determination to delay a gathering with the EU envoy on Russian sanctions – a delay that officers linked to preparations for Putin’s go to.
From Hanoi’s perspective, the go to is supposed “to reveal that Vietnam pursues a balanced international coverage that doesn’t favour any of the main powers,” stated Ian Storey, senior fellow on the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, after the nation hosted Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in current months.
Vitality, arms, tech
In his first state go to to Vietnam since 2017 and his fifth in whole, Putin is predicted to announce agreements in sectors together with commerce, funding, know-how and schooling, two officers instructed Reuters, though that was topic to vary.
Nevertheless, discussions with Vietnamese leaders are prone to deal with extra delicate points, the officers stated, declining to be recognized because the matter was not public.
These talks would come with arms, of which Russia has traditionally been Vietnam’s prime provider; vitality, with Russian corporations working in Vietnamese fuel and oil fields in areas of the South China Sea claimed by China; and funds, as the 2 nations have struggled to hold out transactions due to U.S. sanctions on Russian banks, one of many officers stated.
It isn’t clear whether or not bulletins on these matters will probably be made.
“The primary points relate to shoring up financial and industrial ties, together with arms gross sales,” stated Carl Thayer, a senior knowledgeable on Vietnam safety on the Australian Defence Power Academy in Canberra.
Putin and Vietnam’s leaders will possible conform to work out rouble-dong foreign money transactions through the banking system to allow cost for items and providers, he stated.
