JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Hanoi this week, several officials said, and spark US condemnation.
The visit came after Hanoi avoided a summit of Ukraine's peace in Switzerland last weekend. Vietnam then sent its deputy foreign minister to a BRICS meeting in Russia earlier last week.
Putin is expected to meet Vietnam's new president, To Lam, and other leaders during a two-day visit to Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday this week, officials said.
The United States, which improved relations with Hanoi last year and is Vietnam's main trading partner, reacted strongly.
"No country is allowed to provide Putin with a platform to promote his aggression war and instead let him normalize his atrocities," a spokesman for the US Embassy in Hanoi told Reuters when asked about the impact of the visit on relations with the US. June.
"If he can travel freely, it could normalize Russia's blatant violation of international law," the spokesman added, referring to Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to a Reuters response request.
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague in March 2023 issued a warrant for the arrest of the Russian president on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine. Vietnam, Russia and America are not members of the ICC.
The European Union, another important economic partner to Vietnam, made no comments ahead of the visit, but last month it expressed dissatisfaction with Hanoi's decision to postpone a meeting with European Union envoys on Russian sanctions a delay that officials attributed to Putin's preparations for a visit.
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