North Korea-Russia military alliance shakes US Indo-Pacific strategy 12 agreements with Vietnam
The conclusion of the North Korea-Russia military alliance showed results in shaking up Russia's U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy.
In China's long-standing strategy of stabilizing the Korean Peninsula, North Korea is expected to rise to the top of the list of Asian risk countries attempted by Russia in a buffer zone between the U.S. and Chinese troops stationed in Korea, and attempts will be made to coordinate relations with Vietnam to build a new security system.
The New York Times said, “From Pyongyang and Hanoi, President Putin has redrawn the risk map of Asia, and North Korea sits at its center,” adding, “It is a rogue nuclear state that regularly threatens its neighbors, and is dependent on Russia’s sophisticated military aid and promises of mutual defense agreements.” “I suddenly gained strength,” he said on the 22nd.
In the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, the Indo-Pacific region over the past few years has mainly been centered on the military and geopolitical battle between the United States over China's territorial claims over Taiwan and China's strengthening of militarization in the South China Sea. However, due to Russia's official intervention, North Korea As it moved to Vietnam, it became a form of assistance.
Putin visited Vietnam, where China and the United States are fiercely competing to increase influence, and signed 12 agreements, arguing for a new security system for the new Cold War, saying, “A reliable security structure cannot be built with a closed military-political bloc.” did.
Samuel Green, a professor of Russian politics at King's College in England, said, "If Putin can't get everything he wants from Beijing, he can get it from somewhere else, and Iran and North Korea are supermarkets for weapons, labor, and the will to fight the United States." “The bottom line is that while Putin acknowledges his dependence on China, he cannot afford to let China dictate the course of the war effort,” he told the NYT.
President Putin's trip to Asia is to restore Russia's historic military ties, and North Korea, India, and Vietnam, which have relied heavily on Russian hardware during the war, were selected sequentially.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said of President Putin's surge in activity in Asia, "Our worst fears have come true. What Russia has just done is develop nuclear weapons, violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and make a country subject to UN sanctions." "He said he would become the main organizer of rogue states that would allow them to escape sanctions," he told the NYT.
“President Putin prefers to throw the world into chaos,” Peter Tesch, a former Australian ambassador to Moscow, told the New York Times, “because he believes that Russia benefits by keeping other countries out of the way.”
Russia's arms sales to Southeast Asia plummeted from $1.2 billion in 2014 to $89 million in 2021, and in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and predicted an increase in arms supplies due to new security coordination between North Korea and Vietnam.
The focus of Western analysts is on how China, North Korea's largest trading partner and exerts the greatest influence, will deal with the aftermath of this incident.
The NYT said, “This includes pressure to clarify what ‘unlimited’ friendly relations with Russia mean for China’s stated goal of stabilizing the Korean Peninsula,” adding, “Some analysts believe that President Putin had all of this in mind.” “This may have strengthened ties with Kim Jong-un, who greeted him with a hug at Pyongyang airport, scaring the United States and expressing frustration with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for not doing more to help Russia win Ukraine.”
“Vietnam hasn’t had a major upgrade to its ground forces in years, but they probably will,” Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told the New York Times. “You could see Vietnam buying new Russian tanks.”
Vietnam military researcher Professor Nguyen The Phuong of Australia's University of New South Wales said, "Vietnam is also using new fighter jets and larger warships, just as China uses Hanoi to mark the territory it claims in the South China Sea. “High-stakes security dynamics in Asia have put countries like Vietnam in a corner, and Western weapons are expensive and politically sensitive,” he told the NYT.
The NYT wrote, "Will we use new Russian ships to confront China?" about Vietnam's oil and gas exploration with Moscow's help and oil reserves claimed by Beijing and Hanoi.
“I think there are concerns about the strengthening of relations between Russia and China,” said Derek Grossman, a defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, a Republican strategic group that led the U.S. strategic system in the 1980s. “There is a possibility that both countries will attack small and medium-sized countries.” “There is,” he told the NYT.
Following Putin's visit to North Korea and Vietnam, the United States and France will hold potentially game-changing elections.
White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the agreement "should be of interest to anyone who thinks supporting the people of Ukraine is important," and added, "We think those concerns will be shared by the People's Republic of China." "he said.
The AP said, “China may also have difficulty coming up with a response to the Russia-North Korea partnership, the strongest since the Cold War, as they have conflicting goals of maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula while simultaneously confronting the United States and its Western allies on the world stage.” “China has so far made no mention of this agreement, which requires both countries to provide defense support if the other is attacked, and has only repeated platitudes about maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and promoting a political solution to the division of North and South Korea.” It was announced on the 21st.