Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Vietnam for its "balanced" his approach to the war in Ukraine and outlined progress in the areas of payments, energy and trade in an article published Wednesday in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam. In the article published in "Nhan Dan" on the occasion of Putin's state visit to Vietnam, he praised the communist regime in the Asian country for its support for a "pragmatic way to solve the crisis in Ukraine,", Reuters quoted him as saying.
Vietnam, which officially pursues a neutral foreign policy in its relations with major world powers, has refrained from condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine, a position Western countries consider too close to the Kremlin.
Putin is expected to arrive in Hanoi overnight and meet Vietnamese leaders on Thursday, after a trip to North Korea. The Russian leader, who is making his first visit to Vietnam since 2017 when he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, said thatRussia and Vietnam also share "similar assessments of the situation in Asia - the Pacific region".
Vietnam's position on the South China Sea differs from that of China, which claims the strategic waterway almost entirely as its property, including gas and oil fields in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, where Russian companies extract oil and gas.
Putin named energy as a "area of strategic importance in bilateral cooperation" and referred to Russian-Vietnamese joint ventures for fossil fuels in the South China Sea and in northern Russia. He noted that "Gazprom" also operates gas fields in Vietnam and that the Russian energy company "Novatek" plans to launch liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Vietnam.
Putin also praised progress in financing and trade. Clearing payments between the two countries has been complicated by Western sanctions against Russian banks, and the issue has long been a priority in bilateral meetings.Vietnam has historically been a major importer of Russian weapons. Putin said transactions in rubles and Vietnamese dong accounted for 60 percent of bilateral trade payments in the first quarter of this year, up from more than 40 percent last year.
However, Vietnam's trade with Russia remains limited, with Hanoi's main trading partners being the US and China.