Nuclear priority: Russia and Vietnam are closer to an agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant

Russia is strengthening its position in Southeast Asia, including in the energy sector. The intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Vietnam is currently being negotiated, the next stage should be a feasibility study of the project, Russian Ambassador to Hanoi Gennady Bezdetko told Izvestia. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived to discuss the development of relations between Russia and Vietnam, including in the energy sector. For two days, he held talks with the country's top leadership. Bilateral cooperation has long gone beyond the peaceful atom: the share of settlements in national currencies is growing, more and more Russian tourists are traveling to Vietnam, and the training of Vietnamese specialists continues in the Russian Federation. About the growing ties between Moscow and Hanoi — in the material of Izvestia.

Russia and Vietnam are approaching the creation of nuclear power plants

Russia is strengthening its position in Southeast Asia. Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu paid an official visit to Vietnam. Following the trip, he named several topics that the parties actively discussed, including military—technical cooperation and other promising areas, including energy, including nuclear power, agriculture and mining.

At the same time, Russia and Vietnam have long been negotiating the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country, but now the documents are already at the approval stage, Russian Ambassador to Hanoi Gennady Bezdetko told Izvestia.

— Negotiations are underway, relevant intergovernmental agreements are being concluded. Rosatom does not start working on any energy facilities abroad until relevant intergovernmental agreements are signed. This document is currently under approval. When it is agreed, there will be a transition to another stage — the preparation of a feasibility study of the project," he said.

We are talking about the restart of the Ninh Thuan-1 NPP project, which has been on pause for about eight years. Hanoi has been building the legal framework for its implementation since 2009. In 2010, Vietnam and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement, preparatory work started a year later, but in 2016 the project was canceled by the country's parliament, and construction was eventually frozen.

At that time, Vietnam explained its decision by financial problems, as well as by reducing the need for electricity and reducing the cost of its traditional sources. In addition, the decision was influenced by the events at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, said Dmitry Mosyakov, head of the Center for the Study of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania, member of the Academic Council of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

These events, of course, could scare the Vietnamese. Hanoi has decided that it is possible to focus on green energy, the expert emphasized.

— Vietnam's economic development largely requires an increase in electricity production. Moreover, at one time they made a choice in favor of this green energy, they invested a lot of money in it, but it turned out that this was clearly not enough," Mosyakov told Izvestia.

Everything changed in 2024, when parliament gave the project a "second wind." Already in January 2025, during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to the country, a joint communique was signed on a comprehensive cooperation plan until 2030, where energy, including nuclear energy, was allocated a separate block.

At the same time, Rosatom and the State Corporation Vietnam Electricity (EVN) signed a memorandum of understanding on the development of cooperation in the field of nuclear energy and the implementation of the Ninh Thuan NPP project. By the way, back in June last year, Prime Minister Pham Minh Thien received Alexey Likhachev, head of Rosatom, in Hanoi, asking the Russian side to continue supporting Vietnam in training personnel in nuclear science.

It is in the field of personnel training that Moscow plays an important role for Hanoi. According to Bezdetko, many technical universities in Vietnam still train students based on translated Soviet textbooks.

— The country is developing, the country needs technology. Therefore, we have already trained about 300 [Vietnamese] specialists in the field of atomic energy. They studied with us in Obninsk. We will also be actively preparing at our other leading universities — in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tomsk, and Novosibirsk. Up to a thousand scholarships are awarded annually to Vietnamese citizens to study at Russian budget institutions," the ambassador stressed.

Southeastern calculation: Shoigu engaged in strengthening partnership with Vietnam

Moscow and Hanoi have a solid base, but there are many obstacles to further development of cooperation.

Military-technical cooperation

Moscow, for its part, is determined to promote cooperation with Vietnam "in a wide range of areas, including military and military-technical cooperation," Sergei Shoigu said during a visit to the country. He discussed these issues at a meeting with Vietnamese Minister of National Defense Fan Van Zang. The Secretary of the Russian Security Council stressed that the Russian delegation included representatives of the Ministry of Defense, FSMTC and Rosoboronexport, who, according to him, are interested in working more closely with their Vietnamese colleagues.

The countries are striving to develop partnerships not only through military-technical cooperation in general, but also through law enforcement agencies and special services, Alexander Korolev, Deputy director of the Central Research Institute of Higher School of Economics, told Izvestia.

"In particular, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam actively cooperates with various Russian agencies, such as the FSB, the Interior Ministry, and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, and actively coordinates its cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism," the expert noted.

Shoigu also spoke about this. Moscow offers Hanoi its experience in countering terrorist attacks using UAVs. In addition, the Russian Federation shares its best practices in the field of information security.

— Thousands of Vietnamese military personnel and officers have already been and are being trained at various military academies and military educational institutions in Moscow, which also ensures long-term system compatibility through military-technical cooperation. It also increases the level of institutional trust between the parties," Korolev said.

At the same time, they try not to disclose the details of cooperation in the military-technical sphere between the Russian Federation and Vietnam due to the threat of secondary sanctions. Moscow supplied Hanoi with tanks, planes, and even frigates as part of the contracts. Now we can talk about their maintenance.

Trade and tourism with Vietnam

To solve the problems with payment, the Russian Federation and Vietnam are switching to settlements in national currencies. During an official visit to Hanoi in the summer of 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin explicitly stated that the share of transactions between Russia and Vietnam in rubles and dong in 2023 was about 40%, and in the first quarter of 2024 it was already almost 60%. This indicator continues to grow even now, the Russian ambassador to the country noted.

— Firstly, settlements in national currencies allow financial transactions to go beyond the control of the American financial system and solve problems of payments between countries under sanctions. In addition, it is extremely beneficial for expanding the range of our trade," explained Mosyakov.

At the same time, the number of direct flights between the two countries continues to increase. After the suspension of flights in 2020, the first direct scheduled flights from Russia to Vietnam were launched on January 31, 2024. Then Aeroflot resumed flights from Sheremetyevo to Ho Chi Minh City. Since then, the number of such flights has only increased.

— We have a direct flight from Irkutsk to Hanoi. Plus charter flights from different cities with tourists to Nha Trang. We are promised to increase the number of monthly flights to Nha Trang to almost 100. We have 490 thousand tourists this year (from Russia. — Ed.). This is serious," Bezdetko said.

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The Russian President also noted cooperation in the field of military-technical cooperation and the growth of tourist flow between the countries.

At the same time, the geography of flights will continue to grow, as well as the number of Russian travelers in the country. The Russian Federation is moving towards the pre-pandemic level, when it was 600 thousand people. For comparison, in 2024 the country was visited by about 232 thousand tourists from the Russian Federation, and in 2023 even less — 120-125 thousand people.

In addition to the nuclear power plant, there are plans to build a Russian school in Vietnam. This idea was discussed during Mishustin's January visit. As Maxim Reshetnikov, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development, noted, the school is necessary to teach Vietnamese the Russian language so that they can later come to work in the Russian Federation. This topic is still on the agenda of the two countries, Bezdetko said. To begin with, they need to sign the relevant document, after which the project can begin.

In Southeast Asia as a whole, there is a steady interest in Russia, Dmitry Mosyakov believes. Moreover, the development of relations takes place not so much in the economic sphere as in the political one, since these countries and Moscow have a common view on a lot of problems both inside and outside the region, the expert concluded.