Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam during a state visit to Hanoi on June 20, Kremlin-controlled news agency RBC wrote.
Putin arrived in Vietnam after travelling to North Korea, his first such visit in 24 years. Russian President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed on June 19 the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement, as Pyongyang supplied Moscow with large packages of ammunition and supplies for use in the full-scale war against Ukraine.
Moscow and Hanoi adopted a statement on deepening their strategic partnership and signed over 10 documents, including a memorandum on the schedule for establishing a nuclear technology center in Vietnam, Kremlin-controlled state news agencies claimed.
Details of the signed documents remain unclear, but To Lam said that the two countries will also increase cooperation in defense and security.
Putin is expected to hold further talks with the Vietnamese president and other officials.
Putin has visited Vietnam four times previously, but not since the beginning of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine.
Vietnam and Russia have long had close relations, dating back to the Soviet Union's support for North Vietnam and its proxy forces during the Vietnam War. Hanoi has so far maintained a neutral stance regarding Russia's war against Ukraine.
While North Korea is a pariah state with few international allies, Vietnam and the U.S. have close ties despite their fraught history.
The announcement of the visit elicited a rebuke from U.S. officials.
"No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities," a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam told Reuters.
Katie Marie Davies
(Updated: )
