Copyright nytimes
Vietnam and Russia have reinvigorated their military and political relationship. A New York Times investigation — relying on documents from a Russian defense supplier and interviews with officials from Vietnam, the United States and other countries — has identified a string of Russian military purchases by Vietnam, covert payment systems and a major shift in tone as Hanoi grows distant from Washington and closer to Moscow. Together with high-level meetings and public records, the transactions highlight not just Vietnam’s shifting geopolitics after a period of warming relations with the U.S. under President Biden, but also Russia’s brazen attempt to prove — in China’s neighborhood — that it’s still a major power. Here are three takeaways from our reporting. Vietnam is secretly buying arms from Russia. In Vietnamese military circles online this summer, rumors of Vietnam signing significant new deals with Russia for air and sea defenses, in likely defiance of international sanctions, began to surface. A snippet of a spreadsheet was shared with me by a source. It showed Vietnam — customer 704 — buying an electronic warfare system for the Su-35, a sophisticated fighter jet by Sukhoi.
