RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart today, including on natural gas, during a state visit.

The visit followed Mr Putin’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday as Moscow seeks to strengthen ties with Asian nations amid growing isolation from Western countries.

In their meeting today, Mr Putin and Vietnamese President To Lam agreed to co-operate further in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration, clean energy and health.

The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology centre in Vietnam.

Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none overtly pertained to defence.

But Mr Lam said there were other deals that were not made public.

The Russian president said the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region with no room for “closed military-political blocs.”

Mr Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam wanted to “further co-operate in defence and security to cope with non-traditional security challenges.”

In Hanoi, Mr Putin also met with Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

European Union countries today agreed on a 14th package of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, including a ban on re-exports of Russian liquefied national gas in EU waters.

Belgium said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the package “maximises the impact of existing sanctions by closing loopholes.”

It follows debates within the bloc for over a month and has watered down a proposal by the European Commission to force subsidiaries of the EU in third countries to contractually prohibit the re-exports of their goods to Russia.

Also today, South Korea said that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine in apparent retaliation for Mr Putin’s pact with Mr Kim on coming to each others defence in the event of war.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement condemning the agreement, calling it a threat to the South’s security and a violation of United Nations security council resolutions.

The statement warned that it would have negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow.