Putin arrives in Vietnam, for a visit criticized by the US

2024-06-20 08:29:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Putin arrives in Vietnam, for a visit criticized by the US

Putin in Vietnam, photo taken from BBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on the second stop of a tour in East Asia.

The trip, which comes after his visit to North Korea, is being interpreted as a demonstration of the diplomatic support that Russia still enjoys in the region.

The United States has criticized the visit for giving President Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression in Ukraine.

Vietnam still values ??the historic ties it has with Russia, even as it works to improve its relations with Europe and the US.

Perched above a small park in Ba Dinh, Hanoi's political quarter, a five-meter tall statue of Lenin depicts the Russian revolutionary in a heroic pose. On his birthday each year, a delegation of high-ranking Vietnamese officials lay flowers and bow before the statue, a gift from Russia when it was still the Soviet Union.

Vietnam's ties to Russia are close and go back decades, to vital military, economic and diplomatic support provided by the Soviet Union to the fledgling communist state in North Vietnam in the 1950s.

Vietnam has described their relationship as filled with loyalty and gratitude. After Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 to topple the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, it was isolated and sanctioned by China and the West and heavily dependent on Soviet aid. Many older Vietnamese, including the powerful Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, studied in Russia and learned the language.

Today Vietnam's economy has been transformed by its integration into global markets. Russia has fallen far behind China, Asia, the US and Europe as a trading partner. But Vietnam still uses mostly Russian-made military equipment and relies on partnerships with Russian oil companies for oil exploration in the South China Sea.

The invasion of Ukraine presented Vietnam with a diplomatic challenge, but one it has so far managed to meet. It has chosen to abstain from various resolutions at the United Nations condemning Russia's actions, yet it has maintained good relations with Ukraine and even sent some aid to Kiev. They also share a legacy from the Soviet era; thousands of Vietnamese have worked and studied in Ukraine.

All of this is in line with Vietnam's long-standing foreign policy principles of being friends with everyone but avoiding all formal alliances, what the Communist Party leadership now calls 'bamboo diplomacy'. bending to the buffeting winds of great power rivalry without being forced to admit it.

This is why Vietnam has so easily improved its relations with the US, a country against which its older leaders waged a long and destructive war, in the interest of seeking profitable markets for Vietnamese exports and balancing close ties with its giant neighbor China.

The US has opposed President Putin's official visit to Vietnam on the grounds that it undermines international efforts to isolate him.

Apart from the special historical ties with Russia, public sentiment in Vietnam about the war in Ukraine is more ambivalent than in Europe.

There is some admiration for Putin as a strongman challenging the West and skepticism, fueled in part by social media commentary, about US and European claims to uphold international law./ CNA