BEIJING, June 22. /TASS/. The United States cannot stop the cooperation between Russia and Vietnam by exerting pressure, and the success of the US-promoted Indo-Pacific strategy depends on Hanoi, said Yang Danzhi, a research fellow at the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"Cooperation between Russia and Vietnam in trade, investment, technology and energy is very close and has great potential for further growth," the expert said in an article for the Global Times. "Even though the US has been Vietnam's top export destination for several years, US-Vietnam relations cannot replace Russia-Vietnam relations in the present or foreseeable future," he argued.
During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Hanoi earlier this week, 11 cooperation documents between Moscow and Hanoi were signed, Yang said as he pointed to Washington’s misjudgments of "the traditional basis and close cooperation in Russia-Vietnam relations."
"During the Cold War, Vietnam maintained close political, economic and military relations with the Soviet Union," the analyst continued. "After the Cold War, Vietnam continued to maintain close cooperation with Russia. <…> Although the Vietnamese People's Army has been diversifying its sources of weapons, the majority of its equipment is still supplied by Russia. Vietnam is also an important partner of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) promoted by Russia, having signed a free trade agreement with the EAEU in 2015," he said.
Yang noted that Vietnam did not attend the Swiss conference on Ukraine on June 15-16, and earlier last week, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam sent a deputy foreign minister to attend a BRICS meeting in Russia. "This also reflects Vietnam's refusal to bow to Western pressure," he emphasized.
"Given Vietnam's significant role in the US-promoted `Indo-Pacific Strategy’, the US is likely to refrain from taking severe punitive measures against Vietnam, despite its displeasure with Vietnam's grand reception of Putin and the continued advancement of Russia-Vietnam cooperation," Yang concluded.