After leaving North Korea and greeting Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam, marking his fifth visit to the country. We remember that the first visit was in 2017.
According to the Russian media, meetings are planned with the general secretary of the Communist Party.
The United States has criticized Putin's visit to North Korea and Vietnam, interpreting it as a way to promote his war of aggression in Ukraine. Vietnam still values the historic ties it has with Russia, even as it works to improve its relations with Europe and the US.
Perched above a small park in Ba Dinh, Hanoi's political quarter, a five-meter tall statue of Lenin depicts the Russian revolutionary in a heroic pose.
On his birthday each year, a delegation of high-ranking Vietnamese officials solemnly lay flowers and bow before the statue, a gift from Russia when it was still the Soviet Union.
Vietnam's ties to Russia are close and go back decades, to vital military, economic and diplomatic support provided by the Soviet Union to the fledgling communist state in North Vietnam in the 1950s.