Vladimir Putin landed in Vietnam early Thursday. The Russian president will meet the country's Communist leaders to deepen ties between Moscow and Hanoi, news agencies reported. The Kremlin chief's trip follows his historic visit to Kim Jong Un's North Korea and comes a month after he sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Notice a pattern? The West did and it is concerned. A US embassy spokesperson in Hanoi told Reuters that 'no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalise his atrocities'.
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Several experts said that the Russian leader's visit to Vietnam, North Korea and China – all communist countries – is a way of showing his political clout in the East. To add to Putin's ties with the left, several warships recently sailed into Cuba's main harbor, less than 1000 kms from Florida, in a show of Moscow's strength amid heightened tensions with the US.
Alexander Vuving of the Hawaii-based Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies noted that Putin's trip to Hanoi is important, especially since the Russian president has become a West pariah.
"Russia wants to send the message that it has friends everywhere in the world and that the West's effort to isolate Russia is futile," Vuving said. He further added that Vietnam too has its own interests.
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In North Korea, Putin and Kim's bromance was on display. From driving each other in a limousine to exchanging luxury gifts, the two made sure that Washington DC and Kyiv knew about their ideological likeness. Moscow and Pyongyang also signed a mutual defence pact.
This comes as Russia is fighting its third year of war against Ukraine. The United States last week imposed more sanctions on Moscow and the G7 countries agreed to a $50 billion loan for Kyiv. Only last week, a Ukraine peace summit took place in Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Vietnam stressed on its historicals ties with Russia. Tens of thousands of cadres studied in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, including the current head of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong. In 2001, Russia became the first country to sign a strategic partnership with Vietnam.
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"President Vladimir Putin is a person who has made many contributions to Vietnam-Russia relations. He always has good feelings and concern for Vietnam and values relationships with Vietnam's senior leaders," Ministry of Defence newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan said in an article.
According to news agency TASS, regional and global issues will be discussed during Putin's visit to Vietnam. Following the meeting, a joint statement will be adopted and a number of bilateral documents will be signed, the report adds.