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Putin Signs Deals With Vietnam In Bid To Shore Up Ties In Asia To Offset Moscow’s Growing Isolation

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HANOI, Vietnam — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam on a long-term basis during a state visit that comes as Moscow seeks to strengthen ties in Asia in response to its growing international isolation over its military actions in Ukraine.

Putin and Lam agreed to strengthen cooperation in education, research and technology, oil and gas exploration, sustainable energy, and health. The two countries agreed to collaborate on a road map for a nuclear scientific and technology center in Vietnam.

None of the 12 officially announced agreements specifically addressed defense. However, Lam stated that additional deals had not been made public.

Following their talks, Putin stated that the two countries are interested in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region that does not allow for “closed military-political blocs.” Lam also stated that Russia and Vietnam wished to “further cooperate in defense and security to cope with non-traditional security challenges.”

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Putin | AP News Image

Putin Signs Deals With Vietnam In Bid To Shore Up Ties In Asia To Offset Moscow’s Growing Isolation

According to Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and a former British ambassador to Belarus, the agreements between Russia and Vietnam were not as significant as the pact Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the day before, which promised mutual aid in the event of an invasion.

Putin’s recent visits to China, North Korea, and Vietnam attempt to “break the international isolation,” according to Nguyen Khac Giang, an expert at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Giang stated that Russia is vital to Vietnam for two reasons: it is the largest provider of military weapons to the Southeast Asian country, and Russian oil exploration technologies assist Vietnam in retaining its sovereignty claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Vietnam has also granted Russian state-controlled oil giant Zarubezhneft a license to develop an offshore block off its southern coast.

Putin landed in Hanoi on Thursday morning from North Korea after signing the strategic pact. The pact comes as both nations face rising standoffs with the West and may symbolize their deepest ties since the end of the Cold War.

According to the Vietnam News Agency, Putin also met with Vietnam’s most powerful politicians, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Putin drove to Vietnam’s Presidential Palace on Thursday afternoon, where he was met by schoolchildren waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.

Much has changed since Putin’s previous trip to Vietnam in 2017. Russia is now facing a slew of US-led sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the Foreign Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes, making foreign travel difficult for the Russian president. The Kremlin dismissed the warrant as “null and void,” emphasizing that Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

The U.S. Embassy in Vietnam sharply criticized Putin’s trip, stating that “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.” Allowing Putin to travel freely “could normalize Russia’s blatant violations of international law,” according to a statement.

The United States and its allies have expressed growing concern about a potential arms deal in which North Korea provides Russia with much-needed munitions for use in Ukraine in exchange for Russian economic assistance and technology transfers, which could exacerbate the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Both countries dispute claims of weapons deliveries, which would violate many U.N. Security Council sanctions that Russia has previously supported.

According to Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defense intelligence business Janes, Vietnam is unlikely to give Russia major quantities of weaponry, putting at risk the progress it has made with NATO allies on military equipment, mainly the United States.

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Putin | AP news Image

Putin Signs Deals With Vietnam In Bid To Shore Up Ties In Asia To Offset Moscow’s Growing Isolation

“I would imagine Vietnam wouldn’t want to take a risk, inviting the wrath of Western countries by supplying the Russians,” Rahmat told reporters.

Hanoi and Moscow have enjoyed diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year, they celebrate the 30th anniversary of a treaty that established “friendly relations” between Vietnam and Russia. According to Prashanth Parameswaran, a Wilson Center’s Asia Program fellow, Vietnam is “reinforcing” its partnership while diversifying with newer partners.

Evidence of the lengthy relationship and its effect may be found in Vietnamese cities such as the capital, where numerous Soviet-style apartment complexes have been replaced with skyscrapers. A statue of the Soviet Union’s founder, Vladimir Lenin, stands in a park where children skateboard every evening. Many of the Communist Party’s top leaders in Vietnam, including party boss Trong, attended Soviet universities.

In an article published in Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Putin thanked “Vietnamese friends for their balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis” and praised the country as a “strong supporter of a fair world order” based on international law, equality, and geopolitical non-interference.

Vietnam’s pragmatic stance of “bamboo diplomacy” — a term coined by Trong to describe the plant’s suppleness, bending but not breaking in the shifting headwinds of global geopolitics — is under growing scrutiny.

Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse and increasingly vital in global supply networks, will host US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2023.

According to former ambassador Gould-Davies, Putin’s visit is significant diplomatically for Hanoi.

“Perhaps for Vietnam it’s a matter of just showing that it’s able to maintain this very agile balance of its bamboo diplomacy,” the foreign minister suggested. “Already in the course of a year they’ve hosted visits by the heads of state of the three most powerful countries in the world, which is pretty impressive.”

He believes Russia’s visit was more about optics than anything else, as Moscow strives to interact and influence other countries, particularly those in the so-called Global South.

“Since the war began, Putin has not been able to travel much or very far, and he’s made very few trips beyond the countries of the former Soviet space,” he told reporters.

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Putin | AP News Image

Putin Signs Deals With Vietnam In Bid To Shore Up Ties In Asia To Offset Moscow’s Growing Isolation

Vietnam has remained neutral about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But neutrality is getting difficult.

Parameswaran stated that Vietnam requires US assistance to pursue its economic objectives and diversify its defense relationships. “It has to carefully calibrate what it does with Russia in an environment of rising tensions between Washington and Moscow.”

Bilateral commerce between Russia and Vietnam was $3.6 billion in 2023, compared to $171 billion with China and $111 billion with the United States.

Since the early 2000s, Russia has supplied over 80% of Vietnam’s arms imports. This has been dropping over the years as Vietnam strives to diversify its supply. However, according to Giang, weaning itself completely from Russia would take time.

Given Putin’s international isolation, Vietnam is doing him a “huge favor and may expect favors in return,” wrote Andrew Goledzinowski, the Australian ambassador to Vietnam, on the social networking platform X.

“Vietnam will always act in Vietnam’s interests and not anyone else’s,” he said in the letter.

SOURCE – (AP)

Kiara Grace is a staff writer at VORNews, a reputable online publication. Her writing focuses on technology trends, particularly in the realm of consumer electronics and software. With a keen eye for detail and a knack for breaking down complex topics.

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The Goal Of Donald Trump’s Transition Team Is To Withdraw The US From WHO “On Day One.”

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

(VOR News) – The transition team led by Donald Trump is reportedly planning to remove the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the first day of the next government, according to experts.

This would have a “catastrophic” impact on people’s health all throughout the world, these experts warn.

On January 20, the day the president-elect becomes office, these individuals want to announce their desire to depart the global health agency, Donald Trump’s team members informed analysts.

If the World Health Organization were to depart, it would lose its most significant source of funding, which would hinder its ability to respond to public health emergencies such as the Coronavirus pandemic.

Donald Trump’s leadership and funding for global health are noteworthy.

The United States of America is most likely to leave a significant void. According to Georgetown Law professor of global health Lawrence Gostin, “I see no one that is going to fill the breach.” He went on to say that the withdrawal “on day one” will have “catastrophic” effects on people’s health all around the world.

Trump’s nomination of several allies, including vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, for important health positions in the incoming government has led to a disagreement over US relations with the World Health Organization (WHO). Nevertheless, Gostin expressed doubt that Donald Trump would prioritize a prompt withdrawal as much as some of his colleagues.

The United States of America was the largest single donor to the World Health Organization (WHO), accounting for almost 16 percent of its funding in fiscal years 2022–2023.

In 2020, President Donald Trump began the process of disbanding the World Health Organization (WHO) after accusing it of being under Chinese control.

However, the process has never been completed, and his vice presidential replacement, Joe Biden, resumed relations with the agency on the first day of his administration in 2021.

Experts have seen that after initiating the process immediately, some Donald Trump administration officials are keen to proceed much more quickly this time.

Ashish Jha, a former White House Covid response coordinator for Biden and the director of Brown University’s school of public health, stated that the transition team wanted Donald Trump to withdraw on the first day because to the “symbolism” of reversing Biden’s own inauguration-day decision.

He remarked, “Many individuals within the administration’s inner circle lack trust in the WHO and wish to symbolically demonstrate their disassociation from it on the first day.”

“If you do not actively participate in these Donald Trump institutions.

You will not be able to respond quickly when the next outbreak happens,” he stated. Gostin predicted “very lean years for the WHO,” which would mean the organization would have to substantially cut back on its scientific workforce and struggle to respond to health emergencies.

If the United States withdrew, he said, European countries would likely not increase their contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO), and China might try to strengthen its influence. He claimed that since leaving would give China more authority, it would not be a smart move.

Questions concerning the possible withdrawal were not immediately answered by the Donald Trump transition team. “Is this the same WHO we left in place for the initial administration?” a person familiar with the arrangements told the Financial Times. Right now, we don’t appear to care all that much about what they have to say.

There was no response from the World Health Organization. The group’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called it a “unique organization” earlier this month and said it aimed to collaborate with U.S. officials.

He continued, “From our end, we are prepared to collaborate with one another.” “I believe that the leaders of the United States of America are aware of the fact that the United States cannot be safe unless the rest of the world is safe.

SOURCE: FT

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Do Microplastics in the Atmosphere Endanger Your Fertility?

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Microplastic
HealthDay

(VOR News) – It is quite possible that the presence of small microplastic particles in the air may be a contributing factor to a wide variety of health problems, including malignancies of the lungs and colon.

This is something that needs additional research to be determined. There is one more item to take into consideration, and that is the potential that this is the exact circumstance.

A recent study found that tires and debris that are decomposing shed minute fragments of plastic that go airborne, so creating a form of air pollution that is not particularly widely known. This type of pollution is caused by the degradation of plastic. An example of this type of pollution is that which is discharged into the atmosphere.

The industry refers to microplastic as “air pollution.”

According to the findings of a researcher named Tracey Woodruff, who is a professor of obstetrics, gynaecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, “These microplastics are basically particulate matter from air pollution,” and it is common knowledge that this particular type of air pollution is particularly hazardous.

The researchers who supplied background notes stated that the size of microplastics is less than 5 millimetres, which is smaller than a grain of rice.

This information was provided, according to researchers. These details were supplied by the researchers who conducted the study. These particulars were provided by researchers who were responsible for carrying out the study.

The amount of plastic that is created on a yearly basis by enterprises all over the world is roughly 460 million tonnes, as indicated by the data that were provided by academics all over the world. The forecasts indicate that by the year 2050, this quantity is anticipated to have increased to 1.1 billion tonnes.

Driving is a substantial contributor to the amount of plastic that is floating around in the atmosphere, according to the conclusions of the experts who conducted the study about the phenomenon. When tires are worn down to the point where they scrape against the surface of the road, they allow microplastics to be released into the environment.

As a result of the tires wearing down, this occurs. This impact is brought about as a consequence of the inevitable amount of wear and tear that tires are subjected to.

A study that was published on December 18 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology was the result of researchers conducting an examination of data collected from over 3,000 previous investigations.

The paper was published as a consequence of this procedure. The review was constructed with the help of this analysis that was carried out.

Microplastic used this analysis to put together the review.

A number of diseases, such as cancer, lung problems, and infertility, may be influenced by the presence of microplastics in the air, according to the data, which led to the conclusion that this may be the case.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the studies that were incorporated into the study were carried out on animals, the researchers claimed that it is very certainly plausible that the findings can also be applied to people. The fact that the majority of investigations were conducted on animals does not change the reality that this is the case.

“We urge regulatory agencies and policy leaders to consider the growing evidence of health harms from microplastics, including colon and lung cancer,” stated Nicholas Chartres, the principal investigator and senior research fellow at the University of Sydney.

The organisation reported this comment. The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) issued a press release on behalf of the organisation that contained this statement. The news release was disseminated to the public. We are convinced that state officials will act quickly to make sure that no leaks of this kind occur, which is of the highest importance.

SOURCE: USN

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Russian Oil Ships In The Kerch Strait Are Undergoing Rescue Operations.

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AP

(VOR News) – Following Sunday’s powerful storm, a Russian oil tanker carrying hundreds of tonnes of oil products ultimately broke apart, causing an oil spill into the Kerch Strait below. Additionally, Russian officials reported that the damage was causing problems for another vessel.

Sunday, Russian authorities announced an emergency rescue operation.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, which claimed the Emergency Situations Ministry as its source, the Volgoneft-212 tanker, carrying fuel oil and carrying thirteen crew members, ran aground and suffered damage to its bow. A shipment of fuel oil was being transported by the tanker.

Authorities have told the public that the damage was brought on by the extreme weather conditions that are currently occurring.

A second tanker, the Volgoneft-239, was damaged during the storm and is currently stranded in the same area with 14 crew members on board, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The tanker was discovered abandoned and alone in the same spot.

Additional tankers also suffered damage. The 132-meter-long cruiser, which was constructed in 1973, hangs the Russian flag around its neck.

The footage posted by state media showed the 136-meter Volgoneft-212 tanker, which was cut in two with its bow underwater, and waves crashing over its deck. At least one person lost his life as a result of this tragedy. This led to the opening of two distinct criminal investigations by the Russian authorities to look into potential violations of certain safety regulations.

Having flown the Russian flag since 1969, the yacht was finished.

Rosmorrechflot, the Russian government agency in charge of water transportation, reported a petroleum product spill.

It is believed that the cargo capacity of each tanker is around 4,200 tonnes of oil products.

The magnitude of the leak and the cause of the substantial damage one of the tankers received were not specified in the official remarks. This is in accordance with the official remarks.

Several news sites cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that President Vladimir Putin directed the formation of a working committee to handle the rescue effort and lessen the effects of the oil disaster.

Peskov recommended that the government appoint the working committee’s members. This comment was made public right after Putin met with the ministries responsible for ecology and disaster management.

The Russian government has said that it will be sending more than fifty individuals and pieces of equipment to the area in response to the current crisis. Mi-8 helicopters and rescue tugboats are examples of these people and tools.

The news that experts are presently investigating the damage at the event site was announced by Svetlana Radionova, who is in charge of Rosprirodnadzor, Russia’s natural resources regulating entity.

Kommersant reports that Volgoneft-212 used 4,300 tonnes of fuel oil.

The footage, which showed a partially submerged ship and murky water on rough seas, was posted to Telegram without the owner’s consent.

The warships were located in the Kerch Strait, which separates Crimea from the Russian mainland, when the distress signals were sent out.

The Kerch Strait is a crucial international marine passage that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, allowing for easier traffic between the two bodies of water. It also acts as a border between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which is under Russian occupation. The Kerch Strait is located in the centre of the two nations.

The peninsula has remained a major source of contention between the two national governments ever since Russia annexed it from Ukraine in 2014. Russia was the one who seized the peninsula. Ukraine brought legal action against Russia before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016.

Specifically, the lawsuit claimed that Russia intended to illegally take over a location. The argument was supported by evidence pertaining to Russia’s conduct in the region. In 2021, the Russian Federation closed the strait for several consecutive months

SOURCE: VN

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