Hanoi: After a historic visit to North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam which was the final stop of his two-nation tour of Asia. Putin’s plane touched down at the Hanoi airport where he was met on a red carpet by Vietnamese deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha and top party diplomat Le Hoai Trung.
The visit garnered major international attention after the United States expressed displeasure with the Vietnamese administration’s decision to invite Putin. This marked the Russian president’s first visit to Vietnam since 2017, when he was looking to boost economic ties with the Asian nation.
Vietnam and Russia have close ties going back to the 1950s, but Hanoi is not likely to give Putin the public pledge of “full support” on Ukraine that he received from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse has for years carefully avoided allying too closely with any major power — the so-called “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility.
Both US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping have visited in recent months to deepen relations.
But receiving Putin — under sanctions and seen as a pariah by much of the world — will be “a test of how far Hanoi’s multi-directional hedge can go and still be accepted by other major powers”, said Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group.
For the Russian leader, the trip could offer an opportunity to show that he has international supporters, Thu said.
Russian officials say the talks will focus on trade, education and energy issues, in particular, how Moscow can help Vietnam transition to clean power.
But analysts say arms exports, the war in Ukraine and Moscow’s promised support for Hanoi to join the BRICS group of emerging economies will also be on the table.
Vietnam’s arms imports from Russia have dropped off in recent years amid international sanctions over the Ukraine invasion.
Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at Australia’s University of New South Wales, said that behind closed doors, the two sides will likely work on ways to do business without falling foul of Western sanctions.