US to focus on deepening ties with Vietnam after Putin’s Hanoi visit

WASHINGTON - The US responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Vietnam on June 20 by saying that Washington would stay focused on deepening ties with Hanoi, with which it has sought strong relations to counter rivalry with China.

On June 20, a day after

signing a mutual defence agreement with North Korea,

Mr Putin received a 21-gun salute at a military ceremony in Vietnam and said in Hanoi that he wanted to build a “reliable security architecture” in the region.

Hours later, Washington announced that its top diplomat for East Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Kritenbrink, would visit Vietnam on June 21 and 22 to stress Washington’s commitment to working with Hanoi to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Mr Putin’s two-nation trip to Asia has been seen as a show of defiance to the West, and

Vietnam’s hosting him

had been sharply criticised by Washington, which said the Russian leader should not be given a stage on which to defend

the war in Ukraine.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby was asked at a regular briefing if the US believed Mr Putin would seek support for the Ukraine war from Vietnam, and said Washington expected Hanoi would continue to adhere to UN principles on respect for territorial integrity.

Mr Kirby stressed the US upgrade of relations with Vietnam in 2023, and added: “We are going to stay focused on continuing to deepen it, broaden it, improve it for own mutual benefits to each other and to the region.”

The US is now Vietnam’s top export market, and the US State Department said in announcing Mr Kritenbrink’s visit that he would “reaffirm the United States’ support for a strong, independent, resilient and prosperous Vietnam” and “underscore the strong US commitment to implementing the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.

Russia and Vietnam signed agreements

on issues including energy, underlining Moscow’s pivot to Asia after the West imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

Despite US concern over Vietnam hosting Mr Putin, some analysts believe Hanoi may have calculated it will not suffer material consequences, given that Washington relies on good relations with Vietnam to counter its rivalry with China in the Indo-Pacific region.

However, Hanoi is awaiting an important US decision due by July 26 on whether to elevate Vietnam to market-economy status, and Dr Alexander Vuving, a Vietnam and Asia expert at Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies, said hosting Mr Putin could affect this.

“I think the Putin visit makes Vietnam less trustful in the eyes of the US, and may negatively affect the US decision,” he said.

The upgrade Hanoi seeks is opposed by US steelmakers, Gulf Coast shrimpers and honey farmers, but backed by retailers and some other business groups. It would reduce punitive anti-dumping duties set on Vietnamese imports, given its current status as a non-market economy marked by heavy state influence.

Speaking to reporters on June 20, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen did not reply when asked if Vietnam’s closer ties with Moscow would affect the upcoming US Commerce Department decision.

She said Washington saw Vietnam as a partner in efforts to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on China. She added that the upgraded partnership did not require Vietnam to sever ties with Russia or China, and that Hanoi has a policy of working with many countries.

The Treasury on June 20 kept Vietnam on its monitoring list for currency practices, but said it was satisfied with progress made by the country and would stay in close touch with its central bank.

In its semi-annual report on foreign exchange markets, the Treasury said Vietnam’s net purchases of foreign exchange in the four quarters to December 2023 were US$7 billion (S$9.5 billion), or 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product, below a 2 per cent Treasury threshold for manipulation. It said Vietnam did not intervene persistently through the year to support its currency and made only moderate purchases of foreign exchange despite significant depreciation pressure on the dong.

The Treasury said Vietnam’s bilateral goods and services trade surplus with the US reached US$103 billion in the reporting period, the third-largest surplus. REUTERS