Vietnam refuses to import Russian weapons

Vietnam is rapidly reducing its dependence on Russian arms and may begin exporting locally produced arms, with possible buyers in Africa, Asia and potentially even Moscow. About this reported the RBC-Ukraine with reference to Reuters.

Flag of Vietnam

The Southeast Asian country is one of the world's top 20 arms buyers amid recurring tensions with China, with an annual arms import budget estimated at around $1 billion and rising.

Historically, most of this money went to Russia, which for decades was the main supplier of weapons and defense systems to Vietnam. That made Vietnam one of the biggest buyers of Russian arms, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks global military spending.

But the situation is changing as Vietnam seeks to become more self-sufficient, acquire modern weapons that Russia cannot provide, and faces pressure from the West to reduce arms purchases from Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine.

Instead, Vietnam turns to suppliers from Europe, East Asia, India, Israel and the United States. It has also strengthened its domestic military industry with support from Israel and other partners and is looking to export weapons, analysts and officials said.

Nguyen Te Phuong, a defense researcher at Vietnam National University, said there were even internal discussions in October about whether the country should sell arms to Russia.

Diversification

From Thursday, the country will host the first large-scale international arms exhibition, in which more than 170 companies from 30 countries have registered to participate, the Ministry of Defense reported.

These include Western companies such as US defense contractor Lockheed Martin and France's Nexter, as well as defense groups from Israel, India, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

The three-day event in Hanoi will help Vietnam "diversify procurement channels and technology sources for the production of military equipment for the country's armies and for export," the ministry said in a statement.

Vietnam is negotiating possible agreements on the import of satellites and other dual-purpose products from partners other than Russia.

This will accelerate the downward trend in Russian arms imports, the value of which last year fell to $72 million (30% of total imports) from a peak of $1 billion in 2014, which accounted for nearly 90% of the total that year, according to according to SIPRI data.

In recent years, Vietnam has purchased military equipment from new suppliers, including the United States, Israel, the Netherlands and South Korea, according to SIPRI.

Since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, Vietnam seems to have accelerated its diversification. Analysts say India, Israel and Eastern European countries are better positioned as alternative suppliers because they can supply weapons compatible with Russian systems, which still make up 80 percent of Vietnam's arsenal.

We will remind, according to SIPRI, the sale of weapons and military services in the world is growing for the seventh year in a row. The 100 largest companies in the industry in 2021 reached a sales figure of $592 billion.

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