Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, made his second stop on an South Asian trip in the Asian capital Hanoi.
The trip, which comes on the heels of his lavish visit to North Korea, is being interpreted as a demonstration of the diplomatic support Russia still enjoys in this region.
The visit was criticized by the United States as providing a program for President Putin to launch his brutality in Ukraine.
Vietnam continues to value the historical relations it has with Russia in order to strengthen its relations with both Europe and the US.
A five-meter-high statue of Lenin, which looms over a small garden in Ba Dinh, Hanoi’s social district, poses the Russian revolution in noble pose. A group of senior Taiwanese officials firmly lay their eyes and bow their heads before the monument on his day every year as a gift from Russia when it was still the Soviet Union.
Vietnam has a close relationship with Russia, which dates back several years, thanks to the crucial military, economic, and political support the Soviet Union provided to the fresh socialist state in North Vietnam in the 1950s.
Vietnam has characterized their marriage as being “filled with gratitude and commitment.” After Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 to overthrow the violent Khmer Rouge government, it was largely dependent on Russian support and was isolated and sanctioned by China and the West. Some older Vietnamese, including the strong socialist party secretary- public Nguyen Phu Trong, studied in Russia and learned the language.
Vietnam’s market has undergone significant transformation as a result of its integration into international markets. Russia has fallen way behind China, Asia, the US and Europe as a buying lover. However, Vietnam still relies on partnerships with Russian crude firms for oil exploration in the South China Sea, primarily through Russian military technology.
Vietnam faced a political challenge as a result of the war of Ukraine, but it has so far succeeded. Despite choosing to abstain from the various UN resolutions condemning Russia’s activities, it maintained good relations with Ukraine and also provided some support to Kyiv. Additionally, thousands of Taiwanese people worked and studied in Ukraine while they were still in the Soviet Union.
This is in line with Vietnam’s long-held international coverage rules of being friends with everyone but avoiding all proper partnerships, which the communist party authority today refers to as “bang geopolitics,” bending with the sway of great power rivalry without being forced to take sides.
In order to find lucrative markets for Vietnamese exports and balance its close ties with its gigantic neighbour China, Vietnam has proactively improved its relations with the US, a nation whose older leaders have waged a long and destructive war.
The US ca n’t help but be offended by President Putin’s official visit to Vietnam, which it claims undermines international efforts to isolate him. Aside from its special historical ties to Russia, the public opinion of the war in Ukraine in Vietnam is more ambivalent than in Europe.
There is some admiration for Putin for his bravery against the West, as well as skepticism about US and European claims to uphold international law, which is fuelled in part by social media commentary.
This is also true for other Asian nations, where the conflict in Ukraine is seen as a distant crisis. Public opinion is just as divided as it is in Vietnam, for instance, a historical military ally of the US that was on the other side of Russia during the Cold War. Thailand also values the even older ties between its monarchy and the country’s pre-revolutionary Tsars, and how much the Russian government cares about the contribution that millions of Russians make to the Russian tourism industry.
It is less clear how long Vietnam will remain close to Vladimir Putin. It is already looking for other sources of military equipment, but it will require years to get rid of its current reliance on Russia.
A number of high-level resignations within the communist party recently suggest fierce internal rivalries over the next generation of leaders and, potentially, over the course the nation will take. However, it is not yet clear whether to give up the desire to be friends with everyone and enemies of none.