Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to embark on a diplomatic visit to North Korea and Vietnam this month, according to an announcement from the Kremlin on Monday.
Putin's tow-day visit to North Korea, scheduled for June 18-19, marks an unusual trip that highlights Moscow's growing partnership with the secretive nuclear-armed state. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un extended the invitation to Putin during his visit to Russia's Far East last September. This visit will be Putin's first to Pyongyang since July 2000.
"In response to an invitation from the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a friendly state visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on June 18-19," the Kremlin stated.
Following his visit to North Korea, Putin will travel to Vietnam on June 19-20, according to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, both Vietnamese and Russian state media confirmed Putin's upcoming visit to Hanoi, highlighting Vietnam's steadfast allegiance to Russia and prompting a
rebuke from the United States.
The Hanoi visit comes after Vietnam's decision to skip a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland over the weekend and instead send its deputy foreign minister to a BRICS meeting in Russia last week.
Putin, who began his fifth term just over a month ago, is expected to meet with Vietnam's new president, To Lam, and other leaders during his two-day visit to Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday, officials said.
The United States, which last year upgraded its relations with Hanoi and is Vietnam's largest trading partner, reacted strongly to the news.
"No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression or otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities," a spokesperson for the US embassy in Hanoi told Reuters when asked about the impact of Putin's visit on US-Vietnam ties.
"If he is able to travel freely, it could normalize Russia's blatant violations of international law," the spokesperson added, referring to the invasion of Ukraine that Putin initiated in February 2022.
However, Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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