Russia PM meets Vietnam president, Xi hails 'historical opportunity' for China-Sri Lanka

Mishustin's two-day visit to Hanoi comes half a year after President Vladimir Putin travelled to the capital, where Vietnam's top leadership indicated a desire to boost defence cooperation with Moscow, its main arms supplier for decades.

The two nations have been close allies since the days of the Cold War.

In a joint statement published Wednesday, Russia said it was "ready to participate in building a national nuclear power industry in Vietnam", and the two nations would work together to implement joint oil and gas projects.

On Tuesday the two sides signed a deal on nuclear energy among seven in a range of fields that also included digital technology and electronics.

Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the country would aim to build a nuclear power plant within five years.

During his visit, Mishustin met all of Vietnam's senior leaders including the Vietnam's general secretary To Lam, the president, prime minister and national assembly chairman.

Russia has been Vietnam's main arms supplier for decades, accounting for more than 80 percent of imports between 1995 and 2023, but orders have dropped off in recent years as international sanctions related to the Ukraine conflict have intensified.

No defence deals were announced during Putin's visit in June, but the two sides said in a joint statement that their defence and security cooperation was "not directed against any third country", and contributed to "peace, stability and sustainable development" in the region.

Putin told reporters during the visit, which came as Western powers stepped up sanctions aimed at constraining Russia's war in Ukraine, that both sides had "identical or very close" positions on key international issues.

Xi hails 'historical opportunity' for China-Sri Lanka ties in talks with president
Beijing (AFP) Jan 15, 2025 - Chinese leader Xi Jinping said relations between China and Sri Lanka faced a "historical opportunity" to foster ties, in talks with the island nation's President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Wednesday.

"China-Sri Lanka relations face a historical opportunity to build on the past and forge ahead," Xi told Dissanayake during the bilateral meeting in Beijing, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The two sides should see ties from "a strategic perspective and build a China-Sri Lanka community with a shared future."

Leftist Dissanayake's visit to China comes after he was given a red-carpet welcome to India by President Narendra Modi during his first overseas trip as premier in December.

Dissanayake came to power in September and consolidated his power after his party won a landslide in snap parliamentary polls in November.

China and India are meanwhile competing for influence in the Indian Ocean region.

Sri Lanka sits astride the world's busiest shipping route, which links the Middle East and East Asia, giving its maritime assets strategic importance.

But Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign borrowings in 2022 during a crisis that caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.

China accounted for more than half of Sri Lanka's bilateral debt at the time of the economic crash.

In December 2017, unable to repay a huge Chinese loan, Sri Lanka handed its Hambantota port in the south of the island to a Beijing company on a 99-year lease for $1.12 billion, raising questions about Chinese investments in the country.

Xi told Dissanayake that China would "actively support Sri Lanka in focusing on economic development and promote high-quality cooperation" under Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative (BRI).

China would also strengthen cooperation with Sri Lanka to "jointly address climate change... uphold the unity and strength of the global South, and contribute to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity", Xi said.