ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Vietnam’s To Lam Concludes State Visit to Russia, Departs For France

The Vietnamese leader and his counterpart Vladimir Putin identified trade and energy as important areas of future bilateral cooperation.

Vietnamese President To Lam shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 9, 2026.

Vietnam’s top leader To Lam yesterday wound up a state visit to Russia during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to develop their cooperation in the realms of trade, energy, and defense.

Lam arrived in Russia on Monday for a three-day visit, before departing yesterday for France, where he was scheduled to meet with President Emmanuel Macron and attend the International Space Summit in Paris.

During the visit, Lam, who serves both as president and general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), held talks with Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, and other high-ranking officials.

Ahead of their meeting, Putin praised Vietnam’s “impressive results” under the CPV’s rule, and said that he was “delighted” to welcome Lam and his delegation to the Kremlin. In turn, the Vietnamese leader described Putin as “a great friend of our country,” and said that Hanoi views its relationship with Moscow as “a priority, a consistent pillar of our foreign policy, and a strategic choice of enduring significance.” Both sides made ample reference to the Cold War-era cooperation between communist North Vietnam and the Soviet Union.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Putin described the talks as “very meaningful and substantive” and said that the two sides had signed an “impressive package” of bilateral agreements. These included MoUs in areas such as justice, finance, investment, transport, ethnic affairs, energy, nuclear safety, science and technology, education, and mineral resources, Vietnamese state media reported.

Putin said that economics and trade was a particular focus of talks. He noted that while trade had increased by more than 5 percent last year, progress that he attributed to the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Union, “the overall volume of trade in absolute terms does not yet match the potential.” The two sides agreed to target $15 billion in two-way trade by 2030.

Another priority was cooperation in the energy sector, which has been a recent priority for both governments. In a joint statement released yesterday, the two sides described energy as an area of “strategic breakthrough in Vietnam-Russia relations” that would help shore up energy security for both countries. Both sides “agreed to improve the efficiency of ongoing projects and continue to expand cooperation in the oil and gas sector in Vietnam and Russia,” the statement said. It also referenced the March 2026 agreement with Russia that will........

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