Biden's visit will emphasize the two nations' commitment to "increase peace, prosperity, and stability in the region," according to a White House press release. The top Vietnamese leader is expected to upgrade strategic ties with the United States. Biden's administration has responded early, glossing over the Communist Party of Vietnam's intensifying human rights repression.
According to an internal Vietnamese government document, Hanoi is making clandestine plans to buy weapons from Russia in defiance of American sanctions, even as the United States and Vietnam have nurtured their relationship.
This Ministry of Finance document, dated March 2023 and verified by Vietnamese officials past and present, outlines Vietnam's plan to update its armed forces in secret, the aim being to fund defense acquisitions through payment shiftings at a Vietnamese-Russian oil venture in Siberia. Signed by a Vietnamese deputy finance minister, the document states that Vietnam is holding talks with Russia regarding an arms agreement, which would escalate strategic security despite economic embargoes against Moscow imposed by Western nations.
Vietnam has long depended on Russian weapons, once one of the world's top 10 arms importers. Vietnam's plans to revamp its military and create a tougher deterrent to Chinese encroachment on its South China Sea borders have been hampered by the United States' vow to punish nations that buy Russian weapons.
As Vietnam develops its secret plan to buy Russian defense equipment, it enters a security contest steeped in Cold War politics and the current hot war in Ukraine.
In response to requests for comment, American diplomatic officials did not respond.
Although Hanoi excels at dancing between world powers, its pursuit of a Russian arms deal undermines its outreach to the United States. And it shows the risks of an American foreign policy that forces countries to make a binary choice between us and them.
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Vietnam's strategic positioning has once again shaped this Southeast Asian nation of 100 million people into a geopolitical fulcrum — dominated by China to the north, bound by history to Russia, and recently courted by the United States. In spite of repelling three invaders within a quarter century — France, the United States, and China — Vietnam hopes to elude a superpower confrontation once more and forge its own path.
The Ministry of Finance document outlines a detailed plan for paying for Russian weapons. To avoid American scrutiny, money for Russian arms would be transferred within the books of a Russian-Vietnamese joint venture called Rusvietpetro, which has oil and natural gas operations in northern Russia.
According to the document, "Our party and state continue to view Russia as our most important strategic partner in defense and security."
As soon as the Ministry of Finance proposal was internally circulated, Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian prime minister and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, made a quiet trip to Hanoi two months later. Vietnamese officials say he was there to finalize a defense agreement with Russia. State media barely covered the visit, but Vietnamese officials say he was there to finalize the deal. A Vietnamese official estimated that the new arms agreement would cost $8 billion over 20 years.
A Russian flag and a Vietnamese flag flank Dmitri A. Medvedev and Vo Van Thuong as they stand side by side, shaking hands and looking forward.
A photo provided by Russian state media shows Dmitri A. Medvedev greeting President Vo Van Thuong in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May. Credit... Yekaterina Shtukina/Sputnik, via Reuters.
Vietnam has provided cover to its longtime ally since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. Vietnam has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations and voted against suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council. Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu identified Vietnam as an ideal buyer of Russian weapons.
For its part, the United States has attempted to pull Vietnam out of Russia's orbit. In 2016, Washington lifted a weapons embargo on Hanoi. Despite no expectations that Vietnam would acquire American fighter jets immediately, it was evident that Vietnam would be rewarded as a powerful hedge against China. U.S. allies like South Korea will also have an easier time selling advanced weapons to Vietnam as a result of the upgrade of U.S.-Vietnamese strategic ties on Sunday.
Hanoi had begun diversifying before the Ukrainian war exposed problems with some Russian military hardware, partnering with Israeli and Czech suppliers. 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, Vietnam had to source frigates from Russia but get key parts from Ukraine. In addition, Moscow's need to supply its own war effort has raised questions about whether Russian factories can also produce enough arms to meet foreign orders.
As a result of sanctions placed by the United States in 2017, countries doing business with Russian intelligence and military bodies could face penalties. In addition to excluding Russian banks from global payment systems Vietnam had used to buy military equipment, the United States also banned Russian banks from buying military equipment after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
According to Nguyen The Phuong, a defense analyst at the University of Economics and Finance in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's international prestige will be adversely affected if it continues to buy weapons from Russia. The importation of weapons from Russia will negatively affect Vietnam's future economic growth because our main export markets are the United States and our European partners.
Vietnam's military remains deeply linked to Russia — a change that will take years, if not decades, to take place. It is a strong historical allegiance. During the American War, Soviet missiles helped Vietnamese Communist forces defeat the Americans. Generations of Vietnamese leaders trained in the Soviet Union and later Russia.
The control boards of Vietnamese fighter jets and submarines are in Cyrillic. Switching them would take both time and money, neither of which Vietnam has in abundance. It needs more modern fighter jets because of a string of crashes within its aging Russian combat aircraft fleet.
Buying Western weapons would require more transparency than dealing with Russians, which is another reason to keep the Russian arms pipeline open.
Vietnam's hard-line members now hold the upper hand as Mr. Trong tightens his grip. They remain distrustful of the United States despite Mr. Biden's welcome. There is fear that the United States might try to foment a democratic revolution in Vietnam or, at least, attach human rights conditions to future arms purchases, according to Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington and author of an upcoming book about the Vietnamese military.
This article was written, edited, and summarized by and for the Edu Matrix YouTube Channel. The basis of this article is an accumulation of several articles, including the New York Times.
