Silent Lonesome Man

India and Vietnam are being seen as the potential bulwarks against Chinese aggression, largely because of their common hatred against China. However, their political development shows that disliking against China doesn't mean they will join the same fight against Russia, a country that shares similar political structure and authoritarian tendency like China. If anything that teaches us about such an absurd case, then in some parts of the world, Russia is still being viewed as a saviour rather than an imperialist state, which is painfully true to India and Vietnam's case. This has been observed by the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite the Russian invasion stalled and faltered due to successful Ukrainian resistance, despite Russian troops' excessive display of barbarism against Ukrainian civilians, still a large portion of Vietnamese and Indians cheer the Russian invaders who are massacring civilians and supporting, loving a dictator that is threatening a nuclear wa...

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have heard how the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bemoaned: “We have been left alone to defend our state. Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of Nato membership? Everyone is afraid.” His cry during the early days of the brutal, barbaric Russian invasion of Ukraine underscored that fear. Even though Russia has been repelled from much of Ukraine's north, the Russian troops had not been completely chased out of east and south. This has led to widespread public speculation, and the most popular has always been Taiwan to Ukraine. This comparison has only come greater and greater by size, and this is fuelled by many similarities, from political system to border. Yet, a much less popular comparison draws Vietnam, instead of Taiwan, as facing a dangerous dilemma more than Ukraine, first stressed by Derek Grossman before echoed by Filipino-Iranian columnist Richard Heydarian ....

When the United Nations voted for the resolution ES-11/1 condemning Russian invasion on 2 March, the outcome was not a surprise: Russian invasion was widely condemned. Moscow only got 4 votes against, while the rest were either neutral/absent or in favour. Among those who voted in favour, a significant portion of countries that advocated the pull out of Russian troops from Ukraine, were from Latin America and the Caribbean. Almost these countries here have expressed unwillingness to join the sanctions against Russia due to specific reasons - but the population here, enraged by Russian supports for autocrats and dictators in here, have used the invasion of Ukraine to fuel their angers - much to the dismay of the Putin's dictatorship in Moscow. The UN solution vote on 2 March 2022. Almost every Latin American countries voted in favour of condemning Russia. Vladimir Putin, to be precise, has little interests in going after Latin America, because of the region's rather different hi...

India is one of the very few nations in the democratic camp in the planet to have not denounced Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, in a surprise visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed him, albeit in a cold shoulder. But that still explains why India still views Russia too important. Despite the economic ties between two nations are minimal even compared to the size of India's trade with Japan and South Korea, Russia is the base of many Indian military hardware. Unexpectedly, Indians also have a lot of reason to love Russia - during the Cold War, while India was officially neutral, the country had leaned to Moscow following the 1971 war with Pakistan, an Indian victory. The United States was ill-remembered because of Washington's support for Islamabad, despite American popular rally toward the cause of Bangladesh. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had only emphasised the desperate. Putin and Lavrov have been running o...

On 29 May 2013, in the port city of Cam Ranh, the Vietnamese People's Armed Forces issued its declaration, establishing the country's first-ever submarine force. The submarine force Vietnam established was part of the country's ongoing modernisation effort, to catch up with its Southeast Asian neighbours that have the same force earlier, and also to deal with the much stronger Chinese submarine force. But while the submarine force was established in 2013, it was not until 15 January 2014, that Vietnam officially received the first submarine. A Kilo-class made. The Kilo class submarine was built by none other but Russia, the country that Vietnam has a good, old relationship. Vietnam bought the submarine squad in 2009 as part of their contract with Rosoboronoexport, and its future sailors were educated by the Russians. It succeeded just that. By that time, Vietnam had yet to get American lethal arms, due to weapon embargo imposed on her following the Vietnam War. Fast forwar...

When we look at various internet websites, notably YouTube or Twitter, about the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the surprise supporters of Russia invading Ukraine come from Africa. To be precise, many Africans, in particular, support Russia from the first days because of historical involvement in the continent. Yet, it is too easy to judge that the Russian assault on Ukraine is echoed by Africans, if you are too blind of geography. The continent is not monolith, and Africans are not just the dark-skinned. It also included the Afro-Malay sea surfers in East Africa, Arabised Blacks from Niger-Congo delta, the lively Southern African tribes with their warrior mentality, and even the North Africans of Amazigh, Arab and partially Turkish/European origins. Failure to understand that not all Africans supporting Russia may have exacerbated the differences, not just between Africa and the West, but also between Africans themselves. Sadly, these divisions have been long, if not sayin...

When Putin launched his brutal armed invasion of Ukraine, Putin's Russia has severely broken the old structure of security order. Putin has even warned to conquer and destroy Ukraine, as well as showing eagerness to rebuild the lost Tsarist/Soviet Empire. A number of nations have openly condemned Russia, imposing economic and political sanctions, including cutting off Russia's main source of survival - oil and gas ( which was done by President Joe Biden ). Still, Putin appears not being deterred by sanctions, as the Russian dictator has vowed to raze the whole Ukraine to dust to reconstitute his new empire, including his recent brutal bombarding tactics on civilian infrastructures. Yet despite widespread condemnation against Russia by many nations, so far, countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have been reluctant to join the band. In here, we will talk about Asia, as the detail means for - and why standing against Putin's Russia is vital for their survival. A big cont...

A day before, as the world is being distracted by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, China announced a surprising military drill only at late minutes. While these actions implied the politeness of the Chinese state, the territory it took place for the drill located very near Vietnamese territory - in fact, it was close to two Vietnamese cities, Huế and Đà Nẵng and only further a bit from the city of Sanya in Hainan island - which is the home to an important Chinese naval base. The drill will last until 15 March. Location of China's naval drill according from Google Vietnam. With the drill ongoing and the area is forbidden, one questions to ask: what does China plan for? Vietnam as a favourite target? Fellow communist Vietnam can be the reason why China feels it could exercise its influence in the neighbour. As far as 2014, reports about China manning military exercises were well-known and the favourite target for China is actually not anyone else - it is Vietnam that it aime...