(Hanoi) Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Thursday in Vietnam to “supply weapons” to North Korea, while assuring that the supply of weapons by South Korea to Ukraine would be a “very serious mistake” .
“We reserve the right to supply weapons to other parts of the world, bearing in mind our agreements with North Korea, and I do not rule out this possibility,” Putin told reporters .
Mr. Putin had already threatened at the beginning of June to deliver weapons to third countries, in response to the delivery of Western arms to Ukraine and the authorization given to Kyiv by the United States and several European countries to strike the Russian territory with the Western missiles delivered to it.
The United States called the Russian president’s comments “extremely worrying,” adding that it would risk “destabilizing the Korean Peninsula.”
“This is extremely concerning. It would, potentially, destabilize the Korean Peninsula,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“Depending on the type of weapons (provided), this could violate UN Security Council resolutions that Russia itself has supported,” he argued.
Vietnam is the second and final stop on a mini-tour in Asia for Vladimir Putin, after North Korea on Wednesday, where the announcement of a bilateral defense agreement sparked new Western criticism.
Hanoi also hopes to “push defense and security cooperation” with Moscow, Vietnamese President To Lam stressed.
Since the Soviet period, Russia has remained, by far, Vietnam’s main arms supplier, but volumes have fallen in recent years, despite the militarization of the South China Sea where Vietnamese authorities are concerned about expansionist aims. from Beijing.
“We expressed mutual interest in creating a reliable and adequate security architecture in the Asia-Pacific that would be based on the principles of non-use of force, peaceful resolution of disputes and where there is no will have no room for closed political-military blocs,” Mr. Putin confided.
He arrived in Vietnam during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, after an exceptional trip to Pyongyang, where Kim Jong-un considers him his country’s “best friend”.
Russia and North Korea, under Western sanctions, have entered into a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” which provides for mutual assistance “in the event of aggression” and possible strengthening of “military-technical cooperation,” according to Mr. Putin.
The United States and its allies fear that this accelerated rapprochement could lead to new deliveries of North Korean munitions and missiles to the Russian army for its war in Ukraine.
Japan said Thursday it was “gravely concerned” about the pact, while the European Union approved a new package of sanctions against Russia.
In Hanoi, Mr. Putin pledged to develop relations with Vietnam, to which his country has sold weapons for decades, with a view to countering Western attempts to isolate Russia for its war in Ukraine.
“Russia attaches great importance to strengthening relations with Vietnam,” said the Russian president, who met with the top leaders of the communist state.
The two parties have signed around ten partnerships, notably in energy, education and civil nuclear power. The joint communiqué emphasizes the “warm and friendly” atmosphere of the discussions and the “high degree of trust and mutual understanding”.
Mr. Putin met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, as well as Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, considered the regime’s most influential figure. Aged 80, he completed part of his studies in the USSR.
By welcoming Vladimir Putin, targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hanoi is exposing itself to the discontent of its Western partners, led by the United States, who consider Vietnam, with its 100 million inhabitants, as strategic for manufacturing production, in particular of semiconductors.