Putin in Vietnam to discuss trade, energy
November 12, 2013, 6:50 am

Putin will discuss trade, energy and military cooperation with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang [PPIO]

Putin will discuss trade, energy and military cooperation with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

Hanoi’s demand for energy is burgeoning in response to economic growth of around 5 per cent a year.

Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom is looking at supplying liquefied natural gas to Vietnam from facilities under construction in Siberia and the Far East.

The aim is for Russian natural gas to be used as fuel in Vietnamese public transportation.

A number of agreements will be signed during Putin’s visit, indicated Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.

Trade between Vietnam and Russia is expected to reach up to $10 billion by 2020.

Russia and Vietnam have close defence ties after the two sides signed an agreement on military technology until 2020.

Russia handed over the first of six diesel-electric Kilo Class submarines to Vietnam last week.

Vietnam is working with Russia to build its first nuclear plant in 2014 for completion in 2020 in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan.

Russia had last week expressed interest in the planned Nhon Hoi Oil Refinery Complex in Vietnam ahead of Putin’s visit.

Igor Soglayev, General Director of Sarvors Company, a unit of Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft, said the company would become strategic partners in the project with the principal investor Thailand’s PTT Public Company Limited (PTT).

Moscow is seeking to boost ties with Hanoi even as the country is being wooed by the US as part of its strategic rebalancing towards Asia that some see as a policy to counter China’s rising clout.

Vietnam signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the US in October this year that would allow American firms to tap Vietnam’s future nuclear market.

Meanwhile, the Russian President will also meet Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, as well as participate in the opening ceremony of the Russian cultural days in Vietnam.

Although, the region continues to struggle coping with the devastating fallout of Typhoon Haiyan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said weather forecasts gave no grounds for cancelling the Vietnam visit.

Putin earlier met Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev at a forum on interregional cooperation in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Putin will end his Asia tour with a visit to South Korea on Wednesday.

TBP and Agencies