Putin is set to visit Hanoi for two days after his trip to North Korea, according to state media, in a move that has angered the United States – Vietnam’s largest trading partner, reports Sarah Newey in Bangkok.
“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalise his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the American embassy in Hanoi told Reuters this week. “If he is able to travel freely, it could normalise Russia’s blatant violations of international law.”
But this attitude is at odds with the general sentiment across the southeast Asian country. In the capital, a city dotted with prominent Soviet-style buildings and statues – many were eagerly anticipating the Russian president’s visit.
“I was very happy when I learned that Mr Putin is coming to Vietnam because he is very talented, truly a world leader,” Tran Xuan Cuong, 57, told Reuters. Nguyen Duy Khanh, a 34-year-old photographer, added: “Mr. Putin is a very talented and powerful president and he is truly my idol.”
Moscow has long enjoyed deep ties with Communist-ruled Vietnam, with thousands of people from the southeast Asian country travelling to study in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War – including the head of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Historically, Russia has also been Hanoi’s largest weapons supplier, and today the country continues to extract oil and gas from Vietnamese fields in the disputed South China Sea.