Wished by the Worldwide Prison Court docket, Russian President Vladimir Putin nonetheless traveled to Vietnam on a two-day go to, the place he was warmly welcomed.
On Thursday, the Russian chief wrapped up his journey to Vietnam. The 2 international locations inked a few dozen cooperation agreements overlaying a variety of topics, together with schooling and plans for a nuclear science and expertise heart.
Vietnam isn’t a member of the ICC, so Putin was protected there. Russia and Vietnam even have an extended historical past going again to the Soviet period, so his go to can be not shocking.
Nonetheless, Putin’s fast journey — which got here lower than a 12 months after the US upgraded its ties with Vietnam — is not search for Washington or the West, which have imposed sweeping restrictions towards Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Vietnam is a strategic companion for US and its allies
The US is amongst Vietnam’s largest buying and selling companions, accounting for commerce price $111 billion final 12 months. Russia’s commerce with Vietnam over the identical interval was simply price $3.6 billion.
Australia and Japan have additionally elevated their relationships with Vietnam over the previous 12 months, underscoring the Southeast Asian nation’s strategic function in a altering geopolitical panorama.
Putin’s go to might jeopardize these newly-forged partnerships as a result of the optics are so stark, wrote Hoang Thi Ha, a senior fellow on the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, on Wednesday.
Western allies could rethink “Vietnam’s reliability as a strategic companion within the area,” Hoang wrote.
“Whereas Vietnam isn’t immediately aiding Russia’s battle efforts, its heat reception of Putin could possibly be perceived as ending international legitimacy to his regime and undermining US-led worldwide efforts to oppose Russia’s battle in Ukraine,” wrote Hoang, who can be a co-coordinator of the Regional Strategic and Political Research Programme at ISEAS.
Vietnam is a manufacturing hotspot for a lot of multinational corporations diversifying their operations exterior China — the world’s manufacturing unit ground for the final 40 years — to diversify their provide chain dangers.
The US is taking part in it cool — however actually is not
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen performed it cool, saying on Thursday that America’s elevated relationship with Vietnam doesn’t suggest Hanoi has to interrupt up with Moscow or Beijing.
“Vietnam has a coverage and technique of working collaboratively with many alternative international locations, and it’s not a situation of our partnership that they sever their ties to Russia or to China,” Yellen advised a information convention in Atlanta.
Nonetheless, the US embassy in Vietnam issued a pointy criticism of the go to, saying that “no nation ought to give Putin a platform to advertise his battle of aggression and in any other case enable him to normalize his atrocities.”
Sizzling on the heels of Putin’s journey, Washington is sending Daniel Kritenbrink, the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to Vietnam, the State Division stated on Thursday.
Kritenbrink will meet senior Vietnamese officers on Friday and Saturday to underscore “sturdy US dedication” to Washington and Hanoi’s strategic partnership, stated the State Division.
Hanoi’s sentimental attachment to the previous influences pragmatism
Whereas Hanoi has a much-touted “bamboo diplomacy” coverage of flexibility and balanced relations with various powers, it’s nonetheless hooked up to its previous.
This sentimentalism can affect the pragmatism that marked Hanoi’s international coverage for the final 20 years, wrote Hoang on the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.
It is also a wise political transfer, as a section of Vietnamese nonetheless holds “a deep fondness for Russia,” wrote Hoang.
“Many nonetheless really feel nostalgic for the Soviet Union and grateful for its assist to Vietnam in the course of the wars towards the French and People,” Hoang added. “Some are extraordinarily enamored with Putin as an anti-Western image and a strongman chief, a phenomenon coined domestically as ‘Putin-mania.’“
