In June this year, there were several significant development in the East Asian region, of which the visits by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the DPRK and Vietnam were of particular significance.

The visits of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the North Korea and Vietnam from June 18 to 20 were a remarkable development not only in relations between the countries, but also in terms of their assessments of how the political situation in East Asian as a whole is developing. As a result of the talks between Vladimir Putin and the North Korean and Vietnamese leaders, an extensive list of measures was drawn up and enshrined in bilateral documents.

Unfortunately, the popular media reports of the summarized results of the Russian president’s visits to Pyongyang and Hanoi were limited largely to the repetition of a few emotive terms, such as “military bases,” “ammunition,” “missiles” and “nuclear weapons.” These reports reveal a significant but nevertheless politically-motivated trend, and the analysis of the meetings had better been left to specialists.

In fact the main focus on Vladimir Putin’s visits was not on “ammunition” but on the practical implementation of the long-heralded “turn to the East” in Russia’s foreign policy. Perhaps more accurately, the talks could be said to have focused on reviving the position once enjoyed by Russia’s predecessor state, the Soviet Union, in these countries.

It is worth noting that that position was lost, not because of any failings on the part of the Soviet leadership (as is often alleged, for example in relation to the naval base in the Vietnamese city of Cam Ranh), but as an inevitable consequence of the USSR’s defeat in the Cold War. The present-day Japanese could just as easily blame the 1945 leadership for “withdrawing” from Manchuria and Korea, or from Taiwan (then known as Formosa), Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Russia’s recovery of its position in these areas will take place with the support of its key partner, China. That partnership is just one of the ways in which Russia’s current position as it seeks to return to the East Asian region differs from the position of the Soviet Union half a century ago.

In the international arena, both countries occupy a “back-to-back” strategic position, which is optimal in the current conditions and which requires each partner to........

© New Eastern Outlook