Vladimir Putin goest to Vietnam right after North Korea.... why? What does this mean? Why bother going so far south after such an important visit to a direct neighbour?
I already talked about the huge changes that the new security treaty with Pyongyang indicates ([ Ссылка ]) so today I want to discuss the other event that is a bit harder to interpret, the relationship between Russia and Vietnam. Or in general, Vietnamese foreign policy in the new multipolar world.
To help with this I’ve got the great pleasure of talking to a Vietnamese colleague from Academia, Dr. Nguyen Khac Giang.
Dr. Nguyen is a Visiting Fellow at Singapore’s Yusof Ishak Institute. He used to work as a Journalist in Hanoi and got his PhD in Political Science from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Dr. Nguyen also recently published a very insightful essay in a book about post-1989 neutrality, in which I also have a chapter, his essay has the beautiful title “Bamboo in the Wind: Vietnam’s Quest for Neutrality”. No better timing than discussing this now, because a lot of wing going on it seems.
Dr. Nguyen's work on Fulcrum: [ Ссылка ]
The book with his chapter will soon come out for free online at [ Ссылка ]
