Putin departs North Korea for Vietnam as second state visit this week begins

After spending just 20 hours on a state visit to North Korea, Vladimir Putin departed Pyongyang on Wednesday night and is due to arrive in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi early on Thursday morning to begin his second state visit this week.

While Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement nominally strengthening ties between Russia and North Korea during the Russian leader’s first visit to Pyongyang for 24 years, little of substance appears to have been agreed.

Russian business daily Vedomosti first reported last week that Putin would travel to Vietnam at the invitation of Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the country’s ruling Communist Party. He is expected to stay in Vietnam until Thursday.

Ahead of the Russian leader’s visit, the Vietnamese government declined to attend a peace summit held in Switzerland at the weekend at which delegates discussed ending the war in Ukraine. However, in a further sign of the warm relations between Hanoi and Moscow, Vietnam did send its deputy foreign minister to Russia for a BRICS meeting.

Vietnam is preparing a full programme of state honours to welcome Putin to the country for the first time since 2017, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The leaders are expected to announce agreements in the fields of trade, investment, technology and education, according to officials.