Reports suggest that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin may soon visit Vietnam, marking his first state visit to the country since 2017.
Russia’s ambassador to Vietnam, Gennady Bezdetko, indicated that Putin has accepted the invitation and a date for the visit will be determined following his recent presidential inauguration.
The visit could potentially occur next week as Putin travels to Beijing for meetings with Chinese leaders. While the exact dates of his visit to China are undisclosed, speculation suggests he may stop in Vietnam on his way to or from China.
This visit by Putin would complement recent visits by other world leaders to Vietnam, including U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping, who have been hosted by Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi.
The possibility of Putin’s visit was discussed during a call between Putin and Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in late March. The Vietnamese government’s decision to delay a meeting with a top EU official last week may also be linked to preparations for Putin’s potential visit.
Putin has visited Vietnam four times during his presidency, most recently for the APEC Summit in Danang in 2017. An upcoming visit amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict would highlight the lack of consensus among Western nations on the issue.
An expert from Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute suggested that Putin’s visit to Vietnam would signal Russia’s commitment to its “Turn to the East” policy and illustrate the failure of Western efforts to isolate Russia.
For Vietnam, hosting a leader like Putin would assert its diverse foreign policy approach of maintaining close ties with various powerful nations. Of Vietnam’s strategic partners, only Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have not visited in the past two years.
In this context, a visit by Putin would be expected and not surprising to officials and observers in Europe and North America.