Vietnam’s Growing Alliance with Russia: 5 Geopolitical Effects You Need to Know

1. Vietnam edging closer to Russia to oppose China

As tensions between the Vietnamese and Chinese navy soar in the South China Sea, Vietnam is standing up to the larger nation and not backing down,  as unlike in the past two years, when Vietnam quietly scrapped a pair of drilling ventures with the Spanish energy firm Repsol under Chinese pressure, Vietnam is currently demanding that China withdraw its survey ship, Haiyang Dizhi 8, and its escorts from the vicinity of the oil and gas blocks. Last week, the Vietnamese government announced that it would extend the operations of an oil rig on Vanguard Bank through September amid an ongoing standoff with China in the area. The project would involve Russia as well, following a trend of strengthening Vietnam-Russia relations to oppose China’s imposing military tactics. Russia’s cooperation seems to have lifted Vietnamese spirits but is also strange due to Russia’s usual and improving relations with China. 

2. Vietnam-Russia increasing economic co-operation

In addition to a military relationship, Vietnam and Russia are developing economic relations, as Ambassador Manh affirmed Russia is a special trustworthy partner of the country and thanked people in Primorye region and Russian people as a whole for supporting Vietnam during its national liberation and construction. Vietnam and Russia have witnessed a robust expansion in their two-way trade, especially after the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement takes effect in October 2016. However, leaders of both sides said there is huge room for them to enhance economic-trade cooperation. This improving economic cooperation is set to improve Vietnam’s geopolitical position in the region. 

3. Russia-Vietnam friendship order

Furthermore, in early July, Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), Gennady Zyuganov, has been honoured with the Friendship Order from the Party and the State of Vietnam for his contribution in tightening relationships between Vietnam and Russia. Speaking after receiving the noble award, Zyuganov expressed his honour and gratitude to the General Secretary and President of Vietnam, affirming that he would continue to support Vietnam and the Communist Party of Vietnam while advising Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s strategic directions to boost cooperation with Vietnam. It is hence clear that both sides are willing to increase cooperation further. 

4. What is behind Vietnam-China maritime tensions

Since early July, Chinese and Vietnamese vessels have been engaged in a tense standoff over natural gas resources in waters off the coast of southern Vietnam. The ongoing confrontation is just one incident in a pattern of increasingly assertive Chinese behaviour in the South China Sea, and while no shots have been fired so far, it could provoke anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam. Unlike in previous years, Vietnam has responded to this with force. 

5. China becomes Third Major Investor in Vietnam

Although tensions between China and Vietnam are high, China allocated a large amount of capital in the first seven months of 2019 to Vietnam, thus becoming the third major investor in the Indo-Chinese nation. At present, China is executing more than 2,100 projects worth 13.4 billion dollars, it was reported recently in a conference in the framework of the Zhejiang-2019 International Commercial Exhibition, held in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam is China’s major trading partner within the Association of South-East Asian Nation (it displaced Malaysia from that position in 2018) and ranks eighth in the world. This is surprising but makes it clear, that the military tensions in the South China Sea, have not affected the economic relationship between Vietnam and China, but Russia’s intervention could change that.