- Russian President Putin visited Vietnam and the two countries signed more than a dozen agreements this week.
- Following the strengthening of ties between Washington and Hanoi in 2023, Vietnam giving a warm welcome to Putin would not look good on the US.
- Relations between Vietnam and Russia date back to the Soviet era and have sentimental value.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, nevertheless paid a two-day visit to Vietnam and received a warm welcome.
The Russian leader concluded a visit to Vietnam on Thursday, with the two countries signing more than a dozen cooperation agreements covering a range of areas, including education and plans for a nuclear science and technology center.
Vietnam is not a member state of the ICC, so Putin was safe, and his visit is not surprising, as Russia and Vietnam have a long history dating back to the Soviet era.
But Putin’s surprise visit, coming less than a year after the United States strengthened ties with Vietnam, will not look good on Washington or the West, which has imposed broad restrictions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Vietnam is a strategic partner for the United States and its allies.
The United States is one of Vietnam’s largest trading partners, with trade volume of $111 billion Last year, trade volumes between Russia and Vietnam increased by $3.6 billion.
Australia and Japan have also strengthened ties with Vietnam over the past year, highlighting the Southeast Asian country’s strategic role in a changing geopolitical landscape.
Putin’s visit could jeopardize these newly forged relationships because it comes across as too harsh, Hoang Thi Ha, a senior research fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, wrote on Wednesday.
Western allies may reconsider “Vietnam’s credibility as a strategic partner in the region,” Hoang wrote.
“While Vietnam does not directly support Russia’s war efforts, its warm welcome to Putin could be perceived as ending the regime’s foreign legitimacy and undermining U.S.-led international efforts to oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine,” wrote Hoang, who is also co-coordinator of ISEAS’ Regional Strategic and Political Studies Program.
Vietnam has become a manufacturing hotspot for many multinational companies looking to diversify their operations and spread supply chain risks outside China, which has been the world’s factory base for the past four decades.
The US pretends to be calm, but in reality it is not
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen struck a calmer tone on Thursday, saying strengthening U.S. ties with Vietnam did not mean Vietnam had to break with Moscow or Beijing.
“Vietnam has a policy and strategy to work with many countries, and severing ties with Russia or China is not a condition of our partnership,” Yellen said at a news conference in Atlanta.
Still, the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam sharply criticized the visit, saying “no country should give President Putin a platform to pursue a war of aggression and normalize atrocities.”
Following Putin’s visit to Vietnam, the U.S. State Department will send Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink to Vietnam, the State Department announced on Thursday.
Kritenbrink is due to meet with senior Vietnamese officials on Friday and Saturday to underscore the “strong U.S. commitment” to the strategic partnership between Washington and Hanoi, the State Department said.
Sentimental attachment to Hanoi’s past influences pragmatism
Hanoi touts its “bamboo diplomacy” policy of flexible and balanced relations with a variety of major powers, but it remains attached to the past.
This sentimentalism could undermine the pragmatism that has characterized Hanoi’s foreign policy over the past two decades, wrote Hoang of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
It’s also a smart political move., Some Vietnamese still have a “deep attachment to Russia,” Hoang writes.
“Many people still miss the Soviet Union and are grateful for its support during Vietnam’s war with France and the United States,” Hoang added. “Some are so fascinated with Putin, an anti-Western symbol and authoritarian leader, that the phenomenon has been locally dubbed ‘Putinmania.'”
