The United States wants to oust Russia from the arms market of Vietnam and occupy its place, Russian presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said.

Vietnam and Russia have been military partners since the Soviet era (Picture source: Nguyentandung.org )

"As for Vietnam, it has been our traditional partner since the Soviet era. Major contracts to build submarines, one of the most difficult objects of military-technical cooperation, were implemented last year," Kozhin said on TV channel Rossiya 24.

"We won’t recall the history of relations between Vietnam and the United States, but we observed last year the activity launched by the United States to bring Vietnam closer to itself and farther from us," he stressed.

The presidential aide noted that Russia and Vietnam have very close relations. "Apart from what I mentioned, we also delivered aviation equipment there, and a complex maintenance service center for Russian-made air defenses is operating, because a lot of [military equipment] has been delivered there. This also holds true for seaborne weapons and so on. So, the negotiations are underway with Vietnam - last year we implemented major contracts, and now we are discussing new ones," Kozhin concluded.