Putin's visit shows Russia still matters greatly to Vietnam

Oil and gas deals significant amid overlapping territorial claims between Beijing and Hanoi in South China Sea

- Tan Hui Yee

Shunned in many parts of the world and ignoring an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Hanoi on June 20 at the invitation of Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong. This was on the back of a rare trip to Pyongyang, where he was met with a rapturous welcome.

While Mr Putin's welcome in communist Vietnam was similarly lavish, its greatest importance was perhaps the message it was sending to the rest of the world.

Though Russia and Vietnam have military and economic ties that go back decades to the era of the Soviet Union, Vietnam has in recent years courted relationships with other countries, including China, the US and Japan.

While North Korea has supplied Russia with the munitions it needs for its grinding invasion of Ukraine, Vietnam buys arms from Russia. However, it has been diversifying its sources of defence equipment.

Russia has also largely been irrelevant to the economic fortunes of the South-east Asian manufacturing hub. The US$1.7 billion (S$2.3 billion) worth of Vietnamese exports to Russia in 2023 were dwarfed by its exports to the US (US$97 billion), China (US$61.2 billion) and the European Union (US$43.7 billion).