Vladimir Putin Vows Modern Weapons For Allies As Russia Strengthens North Korea Ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to increase military help and arms exports with its international allies on Monday as he cozies up to North Korea and promises to expand the ties between the two countries.

During an arms trade show outside Moscow aimed toward potential and current foreign customers, Putin detailed that he plans to expand the arms trade between their allies around the world as they endeavor toward the development of a “multipolar world,” which is typically used to describe an offsetting of U.S. domination, according to ABC News.

Putin, who has received criticism and overwhelming sanctions from Western countries for his invasion and war in Ukraine, praised Russia’s allies around the world for their support of his goals.

“We highly appreciate that we have many allies, partners and people who share our thinking on various continents,” he said, before saying that “Russia sincerely values its historically strong, friendly and trusting relations with countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa.”

Though he did not specify any country, one of the allies that Putin may have been talking about could be North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, whom he wrote to during the 77th anniversary of the end of Japan’s occupation of the country to confirm his plans to expand bilateral relations with the nation, al-Jazeera reported.

North Korea and Russia have found themselves forging closer ties with each other after the Russia-Ukraine war began, with North Korea being one of the few countries in the world to recognize the Russian-occupied portions of Ukraine as independent states.

Many, including al-Jazeera reporter Rob McBride, see this expansion of relations between the two countries as a testament to the international pressure the two face, with both countries having sanctions levied upon them by the West for North Korea’s nuclear missile program and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Both of these leaders face isolation in the international community. For Kim Jong Un, it has of course been long-standing. For Vladimir Putin, it’s been far more recent. But no less consequential,” he said. “There does seem an almost inevitability about the two leaders drawing closer.”