Vietnam places orders for Russian weapons worth over $1 bln

HANOI: Vietnam has placed orders for Russian weapons and military services worth more than $1 billion, Russia´s TASS news agency has reported, as the Southeast Asian country bolsters its defence capability.

"We have a portfolio of orders worth more than $1 billion," Tass cited Dmitry Shugayev, head of Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, as saying on Thursday.

The report came during a visit to Russia by Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of Vietnam´s Communist Party.

It did not give any details of the deals.

Vietnam and Russia have had close relations for decades.

Russia is Vietnam´s biggest weapons supplier and Russian companies are involved in several Vietnamese energy projects.

Vietnam had earlier bought six state-of-the-art Kilo attack submarines, along with several warships, jet fighters and other military equipment from Russia.

"The two sides have confirmed their commitment to continue developing their military ties," Vietnam´s Communist Party said in a statement on Friday, after a meeting in Russia between Trong and Russian President Vladamir Putin.

Vietnam has been one of the world´s most active arms importers over recent years, amid China´s increasingly aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea, where the neighbours have long-standing rival claims.

Vietnamese and Russian companies signed several cooperation agreements during Trong´s visit, including three on banking cooperation, according to the Vietnamese government. —Reuters

Most of Vietnam’s military aircraft and all of its submarines were provided by Russia. The US State Department has expressed an interest in boosting its weapons trade with Vietnam two years after it lifted an embargo, saying it’s time Vietnam distances itself from “historical suppliers” like Russia.

The US is encouraging Vietnam to diversify from typical suppliers like the Russians and look “into buying US equipment that would, one, give them more capability and, two, help strengthen our partnership for the interoperability and the greater interaction with our military,” a State Department official said, as cited by the Virginia-based magazine Defence News.

Vietnam increased its military spending by almost 400 percent between 2005 and 2014, according to the US Department of Commerce.

But it has not considerably stepped up purchases of American-made weapons, even after the United States fully lifted its weapons ban in 2016, said Tina Kaidanow, the State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. Kaidanow was in Vietnam between January 28 and February 4 before heading for the Singapore Airshow which took place between February 6 and 11.

Vietnam’s military hardware comes largely from Russia. Most of its military aircraft and all of its submarines are Russian-made.