Putin visits Vietnam after North Korea: agendas in focus, Putin seeking new “security architecture” for Asia

Moscow and Hanoi have pledged to strengthen their relations, as Vladimir Putin made a state visit to the Vietnamese Capital on Thursday, 20th June, 2024. This move can be considered as a fact that Russia has allies in the Eastern Asia region as Putin made clear after he landed here after visiting Pyongyang, the North Korean Capital.

The Russian president arrived at Hanoi airport in the early hours yesterday and was received on a red carpet by the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam. Tran Hong Ha and a top party diplomat Le Hoai Trung. 

Putin’s recent dealings with North Korea;

Putin arrived after visiting North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un with whom he signed a pact that either nations Russia and North Korea would defend each other if any one of them is attacked. 

In response to questions, the Russian President said he can send high precision weapons to North Korea if required and accused Nato of creating such a security threat in Asia and his country included.

Visit of the Russian President to Hanoi and The Remarks;

Putin’s visit to Vietnam has created a lot of criticism from the US, one of Vietnam’s major trade partners. The Vietnamese President, To Lam, had earlier said his country and Russia had wanted “to push up cooperation in defence and security, how to deal with non-traditional security challenges on the basis of international law, for peace and security in the region and the world”.

Both the presidents signed 11 memorandums for cooperation in areas like civil nuclear projects such as building nuclear power plants, energy and power cooperation, education and disease prevention. 

Putin’s seeks “ new security architecture” for Asia;

In statements, Putin said that the talks were very constructive and very close or identical to positions on international security and other issues.

He added that both of them were discussing a “new adequate and reliable security architecture for Asia Pacific based on the result of not resorting to force and of resolving issues peacefully”.

Russia is a long standing friend of Vietnam and analysts are expecting something that whether Putin’s visit to Vietnam would bring any changes and benefit both the countries as its a fact that Vietnam have close trading relations with the US and the west although it has always abstained itself from voting against Russia when the Russia Ukraine War sanctions were being read out  in the UN council.