Defying U.S. sanctions, a Vietnamese government document lays out a plan to buy Russian weapons, which officials see as a way to upgrade its military as a hedge against China says Hannah Beech.
When President Biden is greeted by Vietnamese officials in Hanoi on Sunday, he will be celebrating the prospect of adding another friend in Asia to a coalition that his administration hopes will side with American interests rather than China’s and Russia’s.
During Mr. Biden’s visit, the two nations will underscore their commitment to “increase peace, prosperity, and stability in the region,” a White House press statement said. Nguyen Phu Trong, the top Vietnamese leader, is expected to confer upon the United States an upgrade of strategic ties. The Biden administration has reciprocated early, glossing over the Communist Party of Vietnam’s intensifying human rights crackdown.
But even as the United States and Vietnam have nurtured their relationship over recent months, Hanoi is making clandestine plans to buy an arsenal of weapons from Russia in contravention of American sanctions, an internal Vietnamese government document shows.
The Ministry of Finance document, which is dated March 2023 and whose contents have been verified by former and current Vietnamese officials, lays out how Vietnam proposes to modernize its military by secretly paying for defense purchases through transfers at a joint Vietnamese and Russian oil venture in Siberia. Signed by a Vietnamese deputy finance minister, the document notes that Vietnam is negotiating a new arms deal with Russia that would “strengthen strategic trust” at a time when “Russia is being embargoed by Western countries in all aspects.”
For Vietnam, the idea makes a certain sense. Once one of the world’s top 10 arms importers, Vietnam has long depended on Russian weaponry. The United States’ vow to punish nations that buy Russian weapons has roiled Vietnam’s plans to revamp its military and create a tougher deterrent to Chinese encroachment on its maritime borders in the South China Sea.
Yet by developing its secret plan to pay for Russian defense equipment, Vietnam is stepping into the center of a larger security contest that is steeped both in Cold War politics and the hot war of the moment, in Ukraine.
American diplomatic officials did not respond to requests for comment about the prospect of the arms deal.
Hanoi is adept at dancing between world powers. But its pursuit of a Russian arms deal undercuts its outreach to the United States. And it shows the risks of an American foreign policy that forces countries to make a binary “us or them” choice.
“I feel in some ways that America has unrealistic expectations of Vietnam,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and author of an upcoming book on Russia’s relations with Southeast Asia. “I’m not sure that they fully understand how sensitive Vietnam’s relationship with China is and how deep their relationship with Russia is. Misunderstanding these things could get America burned.”
Relations Between China and the U.S.
Corporate America: Doing business in China, once seen as a can’t-miss opportunity, poses a troubling quandary for American companies: The reasons to stay can be as compelling as the reasons to retreat.
Vietnam: Drawn together by China’s mounting ambitions, Washington and Hanoi are set to forge a new strategic partnership that would bring two longtime foes closer than they’ve ever been.
Tech War: The release of a homegrown Chinese smartphone during a visit by the Biden official in charge of regulating such technology shows the U.S.-China tech conflict is alive and well.
A New Security Pact: President Biden sought to emphasize that his Camp David summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea was not “anti-China.” Beijing will almost certainly find his assertion unpersuasive.
Once again, Vietnam’s strategic positioning — dominated by China to the north, bound to Russia by history and, most recently, courted by the United States — has fashioned this Southeast Asian nation of 100 million people into a geopolitical fulcrum. And once again, Vietnam, a country that within a quarter-century repelled three invaders — France, the United States and China — is hoping to stay clear of a superpower showdown and forge its own path.
Building an Arsenal
“Our party and state,” the document says, “still identify Russia as the most important strategic partner in defense and security.”
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President Biden arriving in New Delhi on Friday for the G20 summit, ahead of his trip to Vietnam. Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
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