User:Mrnachos121/Vietnam War

Russian-Vietnamese Relations Today
Even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia and Vietnam remained friendly relations over the past 31 years. Vietnam is deemed Russia’s most vital partner in Southeast Asia. Both countries serve as economic and militaristic partners to each other. Economically, trade between Russia and Vietnam is strong and growing as the Russians invested somewhere around $950 million to fund upwards of 150 projects in Vietnam. Additionally in the energy sector, Russia maintains a decent amount of oil and gas operations in Hanoi, which is beneficial for Vietnam as China continuously grows more assertive in the South China Sea. More on energy, Vietnam approved of using nuclear power for non-militaristic reasons as to supply energy to the Southeastern country with the support and guidance of Russia. Russia was projected to fund around 85% of the production of the first nuclear power plant in Vietnam; however, Vietnam’s plan to switch to nuclear energy fell through as they deemed the project not viable due to cheaper available sources of energy.

Militaristically, Vietnam and Russia have publicly expressed their militaristic support for each other. The Russians occupied the Cam Ranh base, an old US military base that had been overtaken by the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. During their time there, the Russians expanded the base to four times its size, but the Russian occupation of the base ended in 2002. However, in November 2014 Vietnam and Russia came to formal agreement that allowed Russian access to the base. Because of this, Russian naval presence increased after the agreement and Russian air force activities increased as well. The Cam Ranh base served as a refuel station for Russian aircrafts, specifically TU-95s. This raised concerns in the West, specifically the US as these aircrafts were operating near strategic US naval bases.

Vietnam and Russia still have strong military ties as the two countries agreed to expand on military trade and technologies with each other with a strong emphasis on strategic defenses. Moreover, over the past decade Russia has sold military equipment and vehicles to Vietnam which include Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarines, Gepard-class frigates, Tarantul-class corvettes, Svetlyak-class patrol vessels, Sukhoi Su-30MK2 ‘Flanker-F' multirole combat aircraft, and T-90S/SK main battle tanks.

As for the ongoing Russian-Ukraine War, Vietnam has taken no action to condemn Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. Vietnam still supports Russia in diplomatic affairs and continues to make military trades with the antagonistic country. It was reported that Vietnam had voted against the resolution of suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council based on their invasion of Ukraine. Although the relationship between Russia and Vietnam are strong, the ongoing war is putting strain on other relationships that Vietnam has, particularly the United States. The United States and Vietnam have a relationship--not as strong as--Russia’s; however, both have the same objective of containing China, with the United States looking to use Vietnam for strategic purposes. But as the Vietnamese continue to silently show support for Russia, the Western relations will diminish.