Putin Lauds Deepening Ties With Vietnam Leader at Kremlin Talks

(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed deepening economic relations at talks with Vietnam President and Communist Party General Secretary To Lam on Wednesday.

“We’re very pleased to see you,” Putin told Lam at the Kremlin meeting. Trade between Russia and Vietnam expanded by almost 6% last year and the growth rate has “practically doubled” in the first half of this year, he said.

The two nations have close defense ties, given Russia’s historic role as Vietnam’s largest military supplier. The Southeast Asian nation has been seeking to upgrade its military capabilities in recent months and diversify its partners as it confronts an increasingly assertive Chinese presence in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

Energy cooperation is also a major focus of the trip, building on Russia’s longstanding role in Vietnam’s oil and gas sector, as well as the agreement to build the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant. Hanoi is seeking more broadly to find new sources of power as it aims to address energy security concerns following the Iran war in its pursuit of 10% growth.

The two countries signed a raft of accords after the presidents met, with Putin saying that Russian companies were interested in developing transit supplies of energy through Vietnam to neighboring states. State-owned Zarubezhneft clinched a production-sharing agreement on offshore blocks with the Vietnamese Trade Ministry. 

Novatek PJSC may also start exports of liquefied natural gas to Vietnam next year, with talks at an advanced stage, the Interfax news service reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Leonid Mikhelson.

Lam held talks with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday, while Russian and Vietnamese defense officials discussed increased cooperation during the visit to Moscow.

From Russia, Lam heads to France where he’s set to hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and attend the International Space Summit in Paris. The visit is expected to focus on defense and security, critical minerals and space technology. 

Macron vowed closer cooperation on defense, transport and nuclear energy during a trip to Hanoi last year, in which the French president said contracts worth €9 billion ($10.5 billion) in total were signed.

It’s already been an unusually packed foreign-travel calendar for the Vietnamese leader this year, including most recently visits to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore where he gave a keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue outlining his vision for regional security.

Prior to that he visited China and the US, underscoring Vietnam’s efforts to balance relations with its major strategic partners even as it navigates increasing global tensions. 

The US and Vietnam continue to wrangle over the terms of a final trade deal after Washington turned up the pressure and launched three simultaneous trade investigations targeting Hanoi’s trade practices. Lam is expected to travel to the US again later this month to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

(Updates with energy agreements starting in the fifth paragraph.)

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