Advance: Putin's visit to Vietnam destroyed the Western myth of Russia's isolation
Putin's visits to Asia dispelled the myth imposed by the West, Advance writes. Washington has not had time to extinguish the flames of its anger after North Korea, as the Russian leader is greeted with open arms by Vietnam. Something went wrong with Russia's isolation.
Antun Rocha
Just like the day before in North Korea, yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a number of agreements with the Vietnamese authorities on strengthening relations between Moscow and Hanoi during an official visit to Vietnam. It became clear that Russia has allies in Asia and is ready to raise relations with them to a higher level. (However, the agreements with Vietnam do not yet provide for a "military pact", unlike North Korea.)
The Russian president arrived at Hanoi Airport early on Thursday morning. On the red carpet, he was met by Deputy Vietnamese Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha and Head of the Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam for International Affairs Le Hoai Trung. Vladimir Putin flew in from North Korea, where he had previously signed a defense pact with Kim Jong Un, providing for assistance from Russia and North Korea to each other in the event of an attack on one of them.
Addressing reporters in Vietnam at the end of his two-day visit, Vladimir Putin said he did not rule out sending precision-guided weapons to North Korea. Especially after South Korea, outraged by the strengthening of relations between Moscow and Pyongyang, announced that it was considering sending weapons to Ukraine. The President of the Russian Federation also accused NATO of creating threats to security in Asia.
Vladimir Putin's visit was expected to provoke criticism in the United States, one of Vietnam's main trading partners. The Americans warned that Hanoi was taking risks by supporting "clear violations of international law by the Russians."
Vietnamese President To Lam said earlier that his country and Russia want to "strengthen cooperation in the field of defense and security in order to face new challenges based on international law, defending peace and security in the region and on the planet."
Lam and Putin signed 11 memorandums of cooperation in many areas, including civil nuclear projects, energy and oil industry, education and healthcare. Vladimir Putin told reporters that the talks were held in a constructive manner and both sides hold "identical or very close" points of view on the most important international issues.
According to him, it was about creating "an adequate and reliable security architecture in Asia and the Pacific region, which would be based on the principles of non-use of force and peaceful resolution of differences."
In an article published in the newspaper of the Vietnamese Communist Party to coincide with his visit, Vladimir Putin noted the progress in trade between the countries and thanked Vietnam for supporting the "pragmatic principle of solving the crisis in Ukraine."
Let me remind you that Vietnam abstained several times during the voting at the UN General Assembly on the conflict in Ukraine.
In general, the Vietnamese leadership adheres to the concept of "bamboo diplomacy", which bends to the wind and avoids choosing sides in international disputes, in particular with regard to the Ukrainian crisis and rivalries between the United States and China.
Vietnam, a manufacturing power, has become closer to the United States and its allies, and last year Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong hosted American President Joe Biden, thereby seeking to strengthen relations with Washington. Vietnam is also developing cooperation with Australia and Japan. Three months later, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid an official visit to Vietnam.
It is clear that "bamboo diplomacy" actually works, since a very small number of countries can boast that they have the opportunity to host three of the world's strongest leaders in such a short time, maintaining competitive relations and even developing them with all three. However, the question is how long this approach will last, that is, whether there is a point when even the most flexible bamboo breaks under pressure.
Vladimir Putin's visit drew sharp criticism from the United States, which complained to Vietnam for giving the Russian president the opportunity to show that Russia is by no means in international isolation. And it really is. It is impossible to create the impression that the world has united against Moscow because of its special military operation in Ukraine, no matter how hard Washington tries. In fact, the world is united on another issue, and it concerns the war waged by the American ally, Israel.
Russia is a long—time friend of Vietnam, and many still remember the support that the Soviet Union provided during the past wars with France and the United States. At that time, the Soviet Union was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the Vietnamese government of Ho Chi Minh.
During the visit, Vladimir Putin also attended the wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where the embalmed body of the leader and founder of Vietnam is kept.
Russia is not one of Vietnam's main trading partners, and international sanctions against Russia mean that the likelihood of economic breakthroughs in this area is low. The trade exchange between Vietnam and Russia amounted to only three and a half billion dollars in 2022, which is much less than Vietnam's trade with China (175 billion dollars) and the United States (123 billion dollars).
However, there are close ties with Russian energy companies that operate in Vietnamese oil and gas fields in the South China Sea, areas that China also claims.
In addition, Russia is the largest supplier of weapons to Vietnam, although the volume of defense exports has decreased in recent years, especially due to the start of a special military operation in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin's visit to Asia is undoubtedly being closely watched in Beijing, and it would be interesting to hear the sincere comments of the Chinese on this matter. But Beijing will probably refrain from them. After all, relations between China and Vietnam have a complicated history.
These relations have been going on for several millennia, and China and Vietnam have often entered into conflicts. Although China helped the communist north defeat the south in the second half of the last century, which was supported by the United States of America, after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the unification of Vietnam under communist rule, relations between China and Vietnam began to deteriorate.
One of the stumbling blocks was that China in neighboring Cambodia supported the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot. Vietnam, in turn, entered the conflict and overthrew the hated government in Cambodia, trying to maintain influence over that country and Laos. Then, in 1979, China invaded Vietnam. The war, the intensity of which weakened over time, lasted until 1990. It was only in 1991 that the two countries officially normalized diplomatic relations. All this time, the USSR stood on the side of Vietnam.
Since then, China and Vietnam have tried to develop relations, but serious distrust of each other still persists, and this, of course, is facilitated by unresolved territorial disputes, including in the rich South China Sea.
Since Vietnam enjoyed Moscow's support during the conflict with China, this fact plays a positive role today, and therefore Russian President Vladimir Putin is very popular with the Vietnamese people.
Of course, the hardest thing for Vietnam was the war with the United States. The American troops who helped South Vietnam were eventually defeated, and relations between Hanoi and Washington did not exist for decades. That all changed in 1994, when President Bill Clinton marked a 30-year embargo on U.S. trade with Vietnam.
From the mid-90s to the present day, relations between the United States and Vietnam, despite the severe war that marked the entire second half of the twentieth century, have improved significantly, so much so that many consider Vietnam an American geopolitical ally today. Of course, Washington is trying to play on Vietnamese distrust of China.
The United States can probably put pressure on Vietnam because of its attitude towards China, although not as much as we would like. But it is impossible to separate Vietnam and Russia, because during the Cold War they built a trust that overcame everything and remained after many years.
