The United States expressed deep unease over Putin’s threat to send weapons to Pyongyang, warning such action could destabilize the Korean peninsula.
“It is incredibly concerning,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“It would destabilize the Korean peninsula, potentially, depending on the type of weapons, and might violate UN Security Council resolutions that Russia itself has supported.”
Pact with Vietnam
Russia and Vietnam, a close Moscow ally since the Cold War, pledged to deepen ties during Putin’s state visit aimed at bolstering alliances.
The Russian leader did not receive as clear a declaration of support in Hanoi as he did in Pyongyang, where he got a rapturous reception. But Vietnamese President To Lam indicated a desire to boost defence cooperation.
Russia has been Vietnam’s main arms supplier for decades, but orders have dropped off in recent years as international sanctions related to the Ukraine conflict have intensified.
The two sides said in a joint statement that their defence and security cooperation was “not directed against any third country” and contributed to “peace, stability and sustainable development” in the region.
Putin told reporters the talks were constructive and that both sides had “identical or very close” positions on key international issues.
Putin later held talks with Nguyen Phu Trong, the powerful general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, and laid a wreath at the memorial to independence leader Ho Chi Minh.
Drumming up support
Putin’s Asia tour came as the United States, Britain and the European Union all announced new sanctions aimed at constraining Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The G7 meanwhile agreed to use profits from frozen Russian assets to provide a new $50 billion loan to Kyiv.
Making his first visit to isolated North Korea in 24 years on Wednesday, Putin signed a strategic treaty with leader Kim Jong Un that included a commitment to come to each other’s aid if attacked.
Washington and its allies accuse North Korea of supplying ammunition and missiles to Russia for its war, and the new treaty has fuelled fears of more deliveries.
The two countries have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 isolated Putin on the global stage.
Kim vowed his “full support and solidarity” over the Ukraine war, which has also triggered rafts of United Nations sanctions on Moscow.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Putin’s trip was a tour of “yesterday’s satellites of the U.S.S.R.” in search of “military and technical aid and cannon fodder.”
His reception was reserved in Vietnam, a major global manufacturing hub that has carefully hedged its foreign policy position for years, seeking to be friends with all but beholden to none.
It has particularly sought to avoid picking sides in the growing U.S.-China rivalry as both superpowers look to boost their influence in Southeast Asia.
U.S. President Joe Biden visited Hanoi in September to promote ties as his administration seeks to build up Vietnam as an alternative supplier of key high-tech components to reduce American dependence on China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping followed suit, making his own state visit barely three months later.
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