Vladimir Putin Archives

Putin, in Vietnam, seeks new ‘security architecture’ – SUCH…

21 June 2024
by admin

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, says he wants to build a “reliable security architecture”, in the Asia-Pacific region. He made these remarks on Thursday, during a state visit to Vietnam, which is part of a ‘two-nation’ trip to Asia, viewed by many “as [a] show of defiance to the West”.

A day after signing a mutual defence agreement with North Korea, Putin received a 21-gun salute at a military ceremony, in Vietnam. He was embraced by two of its Communist leaders and lavishly praised by one of them.

Putin’s visit has drawn criticism from the United States and its allies, who treat the Russian leader as a ‘pariah’. They have protested that he should not be given a stage, to defend the war in Ukraine.

Russia and Vietnam penned agreements on issues, including energy. This underlines Moscow’s pivot towards Asia, after the West imposed sanctions on the Kremlin over the conflict in Ukraine.

“We are firmly committed to deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, which remains among the priorities of Russia’s foreign policy,” Putin was quoted as saying, by Russian media.

“We are ready to continue active joint work on a wide range of topics, including economic, scientific and technical ties, defence, security and humanitarian contacts.”

He was quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying that the two countries shared an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the region, based on ‘not using force’ and ‘peacefully’ settling disputes with no room for “closed military-political blocs”.

The 11 pacts signed in Hanoi were not on the same level as the landmark agreement, reached in North Korea. Putin’s warm welcome was an achievement for the Russian leader, who has an outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him, over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Science & Environment

Putin reaches Vietnam after signing defence pact with North…

20 June 2024
by admin

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Vietnam on Thursday on a state visit, a day after signing a mutual defence pact with North Korea.

Putin inked a strategic treaty with Kim Jong Un at a summit in Pyongyang that included a pledge 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 in Ukraine, and the deal fuelled fears of more deliveries.

The US State Department said deepening Russia-North Korea ties were “of great concern” while a top Ukrainian official accused Pyongyang of abetting Moscow’s “mass murder of Ukrainians”.

Making his first visit to the isolated North in 24 years on Wednesday, Putin said he did not rule out “military-technical cooperation” with Pyongyang, which like Moscow is under heavy international sanctions.

“Today, we are fighting together against the hegemonism and neo-colonial practices of the United States and its satellites,” Putin said.

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 called Putin the “dearest friend of the Korean people” and pledged him his “full support and solidarity” over the war in Ukraine, which has triggered rafts of UN sanctions on Moscow.

Putin thanked his host — whose country has been under a UN sanctions regime since 2006 over his banned weapons programmes — saying Moscow appreciated the “consistent and unwavering” support.

Putin called for a review of UN sanctions on North Korea and said the two countries would not submit to Western “blackmail”.

Reacting to the Pyongyang visit, a US State Department spokesperson said no country should “give Mr Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression against Ukraine”.

“Deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is a trend that should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the spokesperson said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, told AFP that North Korea was abetting Russia’s “mass murder of Ukrainians”, and called for greater international isolation of both countries.

Trade and arms

Putin received a rapturous reception in the North Korean capital, embraced by Kim as he stepped off his plane and greeted by cheering crowds, synchronised dancers and flag-waving children.

His reception is likely to be more 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.

In particular, it has sought to avoid picking sides in the growing US-China rivalry even as both superpowers look to boost their influence in Southeast Asia.

Putin will spend Thursday meeting senior Vietnamese leaders including newly installed President To Lam and Nguyen Phu Trong, the powerful general secretary of the ruling Communist Party.

US 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.

Beijing swiftly followed suit, with President Xi Jinping making his own state visit barely three months later.

Putin touched down in Hanoi around 2 am (1900 GMT Wednesday) and begins his engagements at noon with a meeting with his counterpart To Lam.

Russian officials say Putin’s visit will focus on economic, education and energy issues.

Trade between the two countries stood at just $3.5 billion in 2022 — a tiny fraction of Vietnam’s $175 billion trade with China and $123 billion with the United States.

But observers say that in private, Ukraine and defence cooperation are likely to be on the table.

Russia and Vietnam have deep ties dating back to the 1950s, and for decades, Moscow was Hanoi’s leading arms supplier.

Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at Australia’s University of New South Wales, said Vietnam has stopped “big ticket” military purchases since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Russia and Vietnam have a mutual interest in resuming arms sales but Vietnam is hamstrung by the threat of US sanctions,” he told AFP.

Science & Environment

Putin and Kim embrace in North Korea, vow new…

19 June 2024
by admin

Shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un embraced Russian Vladimir Putin on his arrival at Pyongyang’s airport on Wednesday, the two leaders shared their “pent-up inmost thoughts” and agreed to develop their nations’ relations, North Korean state media said.

Putin, who arrived in the pre-dawn hours, is on his first trip to the North Korean capital in 24 years, a visit likely to reshape decades of Russia-North Korea relations at a time when both countries face international isolation.

The countries’ partnership is an “engine for accelerating the building of a new multi-polar world” and Putin’s visit demonstrates the invincibility and durability of their friendship and unity, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said.

Russia has used its warming ties with North Korea to needle Washington, while heavily sanctioned North Korea has won political backing and promises of economic support and trade from Moscow.

The United States and its allies say they fear Russia could provide aid for North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, which are banned by UN Security Council resolutions, and have accused Pyongyang of providing ballistic missiles and artillery shells that Russia has used in its war in Ukraine.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied weapons transfers.

Kim greeted Putin, shaking hands, embracing and talking beside the Russian leader’s plane. The pair then rode in the same limousine to the Kumsusan State Guest House.

“Passing through charmingly lit streets of Pyongyang at night, the top leaders exchanged their pent-up inmost thoughts and opened their minds to more surely develop the DPRK-Russia relations,” KCNA reported, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.

Wednesday’s agenda includes one-on-one discussions between the two leaders, as well as a gala concert, state reception, honour guards, document signings and a statement to the media, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying.

In a signal that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, is reassessing its entire approach to North Korea, Putin praised Pyongyang ahead of his arrival for resisting what he said was US economic pressure, blackmail and threats.

In an article carried on the front page of North Korea’s main ruling party newspaper, he promised to “develop alternative trade and mutual settlement mechanisms not controlled by the West” and “build an equal and indivisible security architecture in Eurasia.”

Putin’s article implies that there is an opportunity for North Korea’s economic growth within an anti-West economic bloc led by Russia, which is a message that is likely appealing to Kim Jong Un, wrote Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with the 38 North programme in Washington.

“If Pyongyang views Russia as a viable longer-term partner for improving its economy – as irrational as this may seem to some – there is even less of an incentive for it to try to improve relations with the United States,” she said in a report.

Putin also issued a presidential order on the eve of the visit saying Moscow was looking to sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” with North Korea. Ushakov said it would include security issues.

Ushakov said the deal would not be directed against any other country, but would “outline prospects for further cooperation”.

Science & Environment

Putin to visit North Korea as US, allies decry…

18 June 2024
by admin

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea this week for the first time in 24 years, the two countries said, a rare trip that underscores Moscow’s burgeoning partnership with the nuclear-armed state.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un extended an invitation to Putin during a visit to Russia’s Far East last September. Putin last visited Pyongyang in July 2000.

“At the invitation of the Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a friendly state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on June 18-19,” the Kremlin said.

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA also announced the visit but offered no further details.

Putin will then visit Vietnam on June 19-20, the Kremlin said. Both visits had been expected, although the dates had not previously been announced.

Russia has gone out of its way to publicise the renaissance of its relationship with North Korea since the start of the war in Ukraine, causing alarm among the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia.

Washington says North Korea has supplied weapons to Russia to help it fight in Ukraine, though Pyongyang has repeatedly denied this.

For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies.

United Nations monitors concluded that at least one ballistic missile fired from Russia at a city in Ukraine in January was made in North Korea. Ukrainian officials say they have counted about 50 such missiles delivered to Russia by North Korea.

“The list of countries willing to welcome Putin is shorter than ever, but for Kim Jong Un, this visit is a victory,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“Not only does the summit upgrade North Korea’s status among countries standing against the US-led international order, it also helps bolster Kim’s domestic legitimacy.”

South Korea’s vice foreign minister, Kim Hong-kyun, discussed Putin’s planned visit to the north in an emergency phone call with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

The visit should not result in more military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow in violation of UN resolutions, the South Korean ministry said.

Russia says it will cooperate with North Korea and develop relations in the manner it chooses and that it will not be told what to do by any country, least of all the United States.

Putin and Kim

The United Nations has imposed a myriad of sanctions since Pyongyang carried out its first nuclear test in 2006, but experts say it has continued the development of nuclear weapons and the production of nuclear fissile materials.

Russia has said that world powers need a new approach to North Korea, accusing the United States and its allies of seeking to “strangle” the reclusive state.

Jenny Town, of the Washington-based 38 North programme, said the Russia’s outreach to North Korea is part of efforts to build an alternative to a US-led world order.

“There is reason to believe that Russia sees value in North Korea as a military partner in that war against the West, which does incentivize them to do more beyond just the arms deals for supplementing Russia’s war fighting efforts in Ukraine,” she said.

For North Korea, its relationship with Russia brings support at the UN Security Council as well as “immediate and tangible results” in terms of economic, military and agricultural cooperation and trade that the countries have not had since the 90s, Town added.

Turning point?

Russia vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts monitoring the enforcement of the UN sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

The Russian veto is seen as a turning point in the international sanctions regime against North Korea, which was created in 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union while the Republic of Korea was backed by the United States.

Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, came to power with Moscow’s backing in competition with the US-backed South.

The chaos of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, though, put an end to that support. After taking over from Boris Yeltsin in 1999, Putin visited Pyongyang in July 2000 for a meeting with Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un.

Relations cooled after the North Korean nuclear tests, though for Kim, Russia is a big power ally that can help balance Pyongyang’s dependence on China.

Kim travelled to Russia by train in 2019 and again last year when Putin and the North Korean leader toasted each other over Russian wine.

Science & Environment

Putin says Russia could use nuclear weapons, ‘if threatened’…

6 June 2024
by admin

President Vladimir Putin cautioned the West on Wednesday that Russia could use all available means, including nuclear weapons, to defend itself if its sovereignty or territorial integrity were threatened.

Putin said that the West had repeatedly accused Russia of nuclear sabre-rattling, but said this was wrong, and pointed out that it was the United States which had used nuclear weapons against Japan in World War Two.

Putin was speaking to senior editors of foreign news agencies on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. He said that Russia’s nuclear doctrine permits nuclear weapons to be used in response to a number of threats.

“For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use it,” Putin said. “We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says. If someone’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal. This should not be taken lightly, superficially.”

Ties with Taliban

In reply to a question about the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the Russian president said Moscow should “build up” relations with it.

“We have always believed that we need to deal with reality. The Taliban are in power in Afghanistan… We have to build up relations with the Taliban government.” Putin’s comments came hours after a Taliban delegation arrived in St Petersburg to attend the economic forum.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said last week that Moscow planned to take the Taliban off its list of banned terrorist organizations, nearly three years after the group seized power from a US-backed government.

“They are the real power” in Afghanistan, Lavrov said at the time, speaking during a visit by Putin to Uzbekistan. The Taliban were designated a terrorist organisation by Moscow in 2003.

The Russian leader’s statement could further boost diplomacy between Moscow and Kabul, but would fall short of an official recognition of the Taliban government. Russia has for years fostered ties with the Taliban.

The head of US forces in Afghanistan alleged in 2018 that Moscow was providing weapons to the group accusations Moscow denied.

Tag: <span>Vladimir Putin</span>

Putin, in Vietnam, seeks new ‘security architecture’ – SUCH…

Putin reaches Vietnam after signing defence pact with North…

Putin and Kim embrace in North Korea, vow new…

Putin to visit North Korea as US, allies decry…

Putin says Russia could use nuclear weapons, ‘if threatened’…