Vietnam welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin, underlining its decades-old relationship with Moscow in the face of US criticism over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to “unconditionally support” Russia in its invasion of Ukraine at talks with President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang that emphasised deepening ties amid US concerns about arms supplies to the Kremlin’s war machine.
France should ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas as soon as possible, according to advice from a Senate committee.
Vietnam welcomes Putin in boost to mutual ties, ignoring US criticism
Vietnam welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin, underlining its decades-old relationship with Moscow in the face of US criticism over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday from North Korea, where he signed a comprehensive strategic partnership with Kim Jong-un who vowed to “unconditionally” support Russia in the war.
“The visit demonstrates that Vietnam actively implements its foreign policy with the spirit of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralism,” according to a statement on Vietnam’s government website.
Vietnam and Russia have ties going back decades to the Soviet Union. Hanoi is brushing aside Western criticism of its invitation to Putin, who last visited Vietnam in 2017 when it hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
The US Embassy in Hanoi, in a statement on Monday, said: “No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalise his atrocities.”
The Russian president was expected to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and meet with officials including Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President To Lam, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Southeast Asian nation has long relied on Russia for weapons, including aircraft and submarines. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though, Vietnam has refrained from Russian arms procurements because of concerns over Western sanctions, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
Hanoi would seek reassurances that Russia’s increasingly close ties with China were “not going to be at the expense of Vietnam”, Thayer said.
While not a major trading partner — Vietnamese exports to Russia last year amounted to less than $2-billion compared to $97-billion to the US — Moscow is viewed as a counterbalance to both Beijing and Washington. The US is seen as an ideological “opponent” by Hanoi, while China’s claims to waters off Vietnam’s coast threaten its sovereignty, said Alexander Vuving, an Asia expert at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.
“Russia can alleviate pressure from both the US and China by giving Vietnam support,” Vuving said. “They can get arms from Russia. State-owned Russian companies for many years have been at the forefront of Vietnam’s efforts to protect its sovereignty in the South China Sea.”
Vietnam has used the backing of Russian firms to explore and drill for oil and gas in the South China Sea, often in the face of Chinese aggression.
Kim vows to back Putin ‘unconditionally’ on war in Ukraine
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to “unconditionally support” Russia in its invasion of Ukraine at talks with Putin in Pyongyang that emphasised deepening ties amid US concerns about arms supplies to the Kremlin’s war machine.
The two leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to come to the other’s aid if attacked, rekindling an agreement dating back to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was the main backer for Pyongyang. Kim said the agreement elevated relations with Russia to an alliance.
“I would like to stress that the birth of this treaty, the most powerful treaty in the history of North Korea-Russia relations, was possible thanks to President Putin’s outstanding foresightedness and bold determination,” Kim said at a news briefing after the talks.
While Kim added the military deal was for defensive purposes, it raises the risks for the US and its partners in responding to provocations from Moscow and Pyongyang and is a symbol of their defiance against Western powers.
“Russia hasn’t been an active player in Asia for a long time, both militarily and diplomatically. But its upgraded and comprehensive relationship with North Korea means that Asia has now quickly woken up to a threat by another big power,” said Duyeon Kim, a Seoul-based adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “An inadvertent conflict based on miscalculation could potentially escalate to a regional or world war.”
The accord was signed during the Russian leader’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years. Kim said Russia was playing a critical role in keeping a strategic balance in the world, while Putin said he hoped Kim would visit him in Moscow.
Read more: Outcasts Putin and Kim get friendly in Pyongyang: In pictures
“Today we have prepared a new fundamental document that will form the basis of our relations for the long term,” Putin told the North Korean leader. “We highly appreciate your consistent and unwavering support for Russian policy, including in the Ukrainian direction.”
Kim said his country would “unwaveringly, unconditionally support Russia’s every policy regardless of any complication on the international geopolitical situation going forward”.
The North Korean leader said the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty agreed with Putin would strengthen cooperation between the two countries, including in the economic, political and military spheres.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday in Washington that Russia was trying “in desperation to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression it started against Ukraine”. Pyongyang had provided Moscow with “significant munitions” and other weapons for use in Ukraine, he said.
North Korea possesses some of the largest stores of artillery and weapons that are interoperable with Soviet-era systems deployed on the frontlines in Ukraine.
In return for the munitions from Kim’s regime that could reach as high as nearly five million artillery shells, Russia has sent to North Korea technology to help in its plans to deploy an array of spy satellites, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said in a recent interview with Bloomberg News. Russia was likely to send military technology to Kim, increasing Pyongyang’s threat to the region, he said.
France should ban Russian LNG soon, says Senate committee
France should ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) as soon as possible, according to advice from a Senate committee.
It’s a bold suggestion because France is Europe’s biggest importer of Russian LNG so far this year, followed by Spain and Belgium, according to ship-tracking data on Bloomberg. The amount of fuel that’s arrived in France from Moscow this year almost matches the total for all of 2023, after shipments from Qatar slumped, the data show.
“Our country must include Russian LNG in energy products under European sanctions and stop imports of Russian LNG as soon as possible,” according to the non-binding report from a committee led by members of the Green and Republican opposition parties.
So far, the European Union hasn’t banned imports of LNG from Russia, but there’s a push within the bloc to strengthen restrictions. There isn’t enough support from member states to start talks on full prohibitions, but it could be possible to stop using EU ports to re-export supplies to third countries.
Ukraine open to Russia attending next summit, says adviser
Ukraine may invite Russia to the next meeting slated with international partners aimed at working out a formula for future peace talks, said President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff.
The Kremlin has repeatedly made clear it has no intention of engaging with the Ukrainian plan. But Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s top adviser, raised the possibility as working groups prepare the details for a follow-up gathering after last week’s summit in Switzerland.
There is no timeframe for a subsequent meeting — and the much-speculated prospect of a second summit didn’t appear in the final document of the 15-16 June meeting in Lucerne. While that meeting saw more than 100 nations and organisations in attendance, it fell short of its ultimate goal to build broader global support.
The working groups’ results “will be part of this joint plan, which will be supported by a number of countries” at a second meeting, Yermak said in a conference call late on Tuesday. “We think it will be possible to invite representative of Russia.”
Ukraine’s so-called blueprint for peace has always involved bringing Moscow to the negotiating table as the ultimate goal, but only after recruiting global leaders to Kyiv’s demands that Russian forces withdraw from occupied territory and recognize Ukraine’s borders.
But winning over governments from the Global South — above all China, but also countries including India and Brazil — has proved elusive. Many delegates outside the Western fold who came to the summit reinforced their point that a process that doesn’t involve Russia is bound to fail.
India, Brazil and South Africa on Sunday opted out of signing the final communique, rounding out the so-called BRICS nations. Meanwhile, an official from Saudi Arabia, which Zelensky had courted, warned that Kyiv must be prepared for a “difficult compromise” to put an end to the conflict.
Putin set out terms for peace talks on the eve of the gathering, calling on Ukraine to first surrender four of its eastern regions to Russia as well as renounce its ambition to join Nato. The demand was derided by Western allies along with Ukraine, which has repeatedly said giving up any of its territory is unacceptable.
Le Pen’s party backs arming Ukraine, says ‘no French troops’
Jordan Bardella, president of Marine le Pen’s National Rally party, said he was in favour of providing Ukraine with the ammunition it needed to defend itself but not the equipment that might trigger a broader war, placing him relatively close to President Emmanuel Macron’s position on France’s role in the conflict.
But unlike Macron, he said he was opposed to sending French troops to the country.
Bardella, who may become prime minister if Le Pen’s party gets a resounding victory in France’s snap election, was speaking on the sidelines of the Eurosatory defence fair in Villepinte, on the outskirts of Paris, on Wednesday.
“I want Ukraine to have the ammunition and equipment it needs to hold up,” he said. “But my red line won’t change: no equipment that could have consequences… My red line is co-belligerence.”
Le Pen’s party’s ties to Russia had raised questions about its stance on arming Ukraine, and Bardella’s comments may alleviate concerns in some European Union capitals that a fresh push to support Ukraine would fall by the wayside if the National Rally forms a government after the 7 July vote. Macron has been one of Kyiv’s top cheerleaders, with his plan including dispatching army trainers to Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Bardella strolled through the fair, drawing huge crowds as he visited the booths of defence companies producing Caesar cannons, drones, and missiles that France has sent to Ukraine.
“I am opposed to sending French troops to Ukraine,” he said, dismissing an idea floated by Macron.
Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for a new legislative vote after his party was trounced by Le Pen’s group in the European Parliament ballot this month. The French president had centred his EU campaign on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, portraying Le Pen as a Putin ally and framing his party’s victory in the elections as crucial for Europe. Just two days before calling for early elections, Macron stood alongside Zelensky in Paris, pledging to send French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets and build a coalition to support Ukraine.
Le Pen had countered by promoting herself as a peace advocate, criticising Macron’s comments on sending troops as a cynical ploy to dramatise what was at stake in the EU elections.
Le Pen’s party’s financial ties to Russia have been under scrutiny after it took out a loan from a Russian bank, which the National Rally said it has since repaid. Last year, the National Rally abstained on a resolution in the European Parliament that condemned the imprisonment of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic jail earlier this year.
Russian court sentences US soldier to jail for theft, reports Interfax
A Russian judge found US Staff Sergeant Gordon Black guilty of theft and death threats against a local woman he’d travelled to visit, adding to the number of Americans held in the country.
Black (34) was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, the Interfax news service reported from the courtroom in Vladivostok, in the Far East region. Investigators had accused Black of grabbing his girlfriend by the neck during a quarrel, which she considered a threat to her life, and stole 10,000 roubles ($117) from her in May of this year.
His lawyer said they would appeal, according to Interfax. Black had denied making a deadly threat and pleaded partially guilty to the theft charges, saying he’d returned the money, according to the news service.
Black flew to Russia for personal reasons and without official authorisation, the US Army said in May. He was scheduled to change duty stations from South Korea to Texas, signing out on leave in April, according to the army. Instead of returning to the US, he flew from South Korea’s Incheon Airport to Vladivostok, Russia, via China.
Among Americans already held in Russia are businessman Paul Whelan and journalist Evan Gershkovich, both of whom the US classifies as wrongfully detained, as well as dual citizens Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who’s accused of failing to register as a foreign agent, and Ksenia Karelina, who was detained on treason charges, reportedly tied to a charitable donation to benefit Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. DM