Early years

The first Vietnamese appeared in the USSR in the early 1920s. These were students from Comintern universities, mainly from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. About 70 Vietnamese passed through this system of communist education in Soviet Russia. Ho Chi Minh studied in Moscow in the 1920s, along with other members of the Indochinese Communist Party.

The Soviet Union was the first country, along with its satellite states in Eastern Europe and the newly established People's Republic of China, to diplomatically recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the First Indochina War in January 1950.^[2] The Soviet Union pressured the Viet Minh delegation to accept partition as a compromise solution to the conflict at the 1954 Geneva Conference. Later, in 1964, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin visited Hanoi to try to dissuade Lê Duẩn against escalating the Vietnam War against South Vietnam and the United States.^[3] Nevertheless, the USSR was traditionally one of Vietnam's strongest allies and offered crucial military aid to North Vietnam during the war. Aid included air-defense equipment such as radar and surface-to-air missiles. It also included pilot training and aircraft, such as "some all-weather MIG fighters" and several IL-28 light bombers.^[4]

Vietnam and Russia

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, friendly relations were established between Vietnam and the Russian Federation, the USSR's main successor state. Nearly 5% of the official count of the Vietnamese population in Russia is composed of students with Russian government scholarships.^[5] In January 2001, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Soviet-Vietnam ties, Russian president Vladimir Putin made an official visit to Hanoi, where he was received by Vietnamese president Trần Đức Lương.^[1] Bilateral trade amounted to $550 million in 2001; Russian exports to Vietnam included machinery and steel, while Vietnam sold textiles and rice. The two countries also maintained relations in the energy sector, with joint venture Vietsovpetro pumping crude oil from the Bạch Hổ oil field.^[6]

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the Soviet Union became a benefactor to the country during the 1980s until the USSR collapsed in 1991, leaving Vietnam with a weakened ideological, economic and military ally. In rhetoric, Vietnam officially remains one of the world's last communist countries – the communist hammer-and-sickle flag can still be seen – but it has embraced a "socialist-oriented market economy" along with Asian and Western investment over the past two decades.

Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, visited Vietnam in July 2009. "Relations between the two countries have developed positively," Lavrov said. "We are convinced that the bilateral cooperation will be at a high level."^[7]

In 2017, 83% of Vietnamese had a favorable view of Russia and 89% of Vietnamese had a favorable view of Russian President Vladimir Putin.^[8][9]

In July 2022, Sergey Lavrov met with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn in Hanoi. Lavrov called Vietnam a "key partner" of Russia in ASEAN.^[10]

In March 2022 and February 2023, Vietnam abstained from UN votes to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[11][12] At the request of the Kremlin, Vietnam deported several Russian citizens living in Vietnam because they criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine.^[13]

On 21 - 23 May 2023, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, visited Hanoi and met with Vietnam's Communist Party chief Nguyễn Phú Trọng. They discussed the strengthening of ties between Russia and Vietnam and the current international situation.^[14]

Cam Ranh Base

The Soviet and Russian Navy had until 2002^[20] maintained a presence in Vietnam at the US-built military base in Cam Ranh Bay which had been turned over to the Republic of Vietnam Navy and captured by North Vietnamese forces in 1975. By 1987, the Soviets expanded the base to four times its original size. The Soviet Union and Vietnam officially denied the base's existence.^[21] In 1988, the Soviet Foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze discussed the option of withdrawal from Cam Ranh Bay, and the reduction in forces was effected by 1990.^[22][23] Although Russian military presence no longer exist at Cam Ranh Bay, Russia is currently still using the existing base as a supply station allowed by the Vietnam People's Navy.

Soviet military specialists

A group of Soviet Armed Forces military specialists in Vietnam came at the invitation of Ho Chi Minh personally to render military and engineering assistance to the Vietnamese People's Army.^[24] From July 1965 to December 1974, more than 6000 generals and officers and more than 4,500 soldiers were sent to Vietnam as specialists. Small contingents of auxiliary forces from other states like Bulgaria and Cuba accompanied the Soviets.^[25][26] From 1975-2002, forty-four Soviet servicemen were killed in Vietnam, mainly in aviation accidents.^[27]

Energy

Vietnam in 2008 approved the use of atomic power for civilian purposes, and Russia has already said it would like to take part in the planned programme. Khiem said the two sides also reaffirmed their traditional relations in other fields, including defence. That report came after the Russian newspaper Kommersant said Vietnam was also about to sign a deal for six Russian submarines.^[47] along with the Gepard class frigate and a joint production in anti ship missiles as military ties are growing again.

Vietnam's President Triet, on a visit to Moscow in October 2008, signed a pact for Vietnamese and Russian firms to develop energy fields off the Vietnam coast. In the telecommunications sector, Russia's VimpelCom on mid-July 2009 announced the commercial launch in Vietnam of its Beeline mobile service through GTEL-Mobile, a joint venture with a Vietnamese state-owned company. Lavrov was to travel Sunday July 26 to southern Ho Chi Minh City to meet local government officials there.^[48]

In the late 2000s, Russian influence in Vietnam has begun to grow again but remains far below that of Soviet times. On Saturday July 25, Vietnam and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding between their respective atomic energy agencies but no details were released. "Cooperation on atomic energy will be a priority", Lavrov said.^[49]

Other

Preliminary Vietnamese government data show that exports to Russia totalled almost 139 million dollars in the first five months of 2009 while imports were valued at about $525 million. Vietnam's former wartime enemy, the United States, which normalised diplomatic ties in 1995, received Vietnamese exports worth more than $4 billion in the first five months, the data showed. Imports exceeded $932 million.^[50] By 2012 trade between the two nations has reached $3.5 billion

In March 2013, Eurasian Economic Community minister of trade Andrey Slepnev visited Hanoi to open talks on the possibility of Vietnam joining the Eurasian Customs Union.^[51][52]

In September 2021, it was decided to create favourable conditions for the effective operation of Gazprom, Zarubezhneft and Novatek in Vietnam and PetroVietnam in Russia.^[53] Trade remains an important tool in enhancing bilateral ties.^[54]