General Secretary and President To Lam attended the opening of a new Vietnam Russia heritage and cultural connectivity space this week at the S.A. Gerasimov All Russian State University of Cinematography in Moscow, adding a cultural dimension to his broader state visit to Russia. Lam, accompanied by his spouse and a high ranking Vietnamese delegation, participated in the ceremony as part of continued engagements during his historic trip, the first state visit by a Vietnamese top leader to Russia since 1991.
The new cultural space is intended to strengthen educational and artistic ties between the two countries, building on a relationship that stretches back decades to the Soviet era, when numerous Vietnamese students and artists received training at Soviet institutions, including at the very university now hosting this latest connectivity initiative. That historical foundation gives the current cultural diplomacy effort particular resonance, reconnecting contemporary bilateral relations with a shared educational and artistic history spanning multiple generations.
Beyond the cultural space opening, Lam’s Moscow itinerary this week included solemn commemorative activities, with the Vietnamese leader laying wreaths at the President Ho Chi Minh Monument and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, gestures reflecting the deep historical ties between Vietnam and Russia dating back to the Soviet Union’s support for Vietnam during earlier periods of the country’s development. The Ho Chi Minh Monument itself, located at Ho Chi Minh Square in Moscow, was inaugurated back in 1990 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Vietnamese founding leader’s birth, standing as a lasting symbol of the enduring friendship between the two nations.
During his broader visit, Lam has emphasized maritime cooperation as a particularly promising area for future collaboration between Vietnam and Russia, raising the topic while receiving Russian Presidential Aide and Maritime Board Chairman Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow. Lam specifically called on relevant agencies from both countries to urgently translate agreed orientations for maritime cooperation covering the 2026 to 2030 period into genuinely feasible programmes and concrete projects, explicitly cautioning against allowing such agreements to remain merely theoretical policy statements without practical follow through.
Former Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Dinh Toan Thang has expressed confidence that Lam’s visit will reaffirm the political determination underpinning the broader Vietnam Russia relationship while creating fresh momentum toward translating the countries’ existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership into substantive, mutually beneficial outcomes. That assessment reflects a broader hope among Vietnamese diplomatic circles that this historic visit produces lasting practical results rather than serving purely symbolic or ceremonial purposes.
The cultural connectivity space opening arrives alongside Lam’s separately confirmed talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for formal discussions in the Kremlin covering trade, economic cooperation, scientific and educational ties, humanitarian exchanges, and broader security and defense cooperation between the two nations. This combination of high level political talks alongside cultural and educational diplomacy reflects a comprehensive approach to strengthening bilateral ties across multiple dimensions simultaneously during this single, historically significant visit.
As Lam’s Russia visit continues before his onward travel to France for the International Space Summit, this week’s cultural diplomacy activities add depth to what officials on both sides have characterized as a genuinely comprehensive reset of the Vietnam Russia relationship. For a partnership that has lacked a state visit at this level for more than three decades, these combined political, cultural, and educational initiatives suggest both governments are working to build a more multifaceted foundation for the relationship’s continued development in the years ahead.
