Russia and Vietnam signed an agreement: the return of the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant with great fanfare.

During the official visit of the Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to Moscow, a key intergovernmental agreement on the construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant was signed. The Ninh Thuan 1 project envisages two VVER-1200 reactors, and as a reference project the latest Russian plant Leningrad 2 was taken

The agreement was signed by Rosatom Director Alexey Likhachev and Minister Tran Van Son, in the presence of the prime ministers of both countries. Likhachev, at the signing, was clear: „this is not just a contract for two blocks. This is the foundation of a long-term industrial partnership that will shape Russian-Vietnamese cooperation in the coming decades.“

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin added that this project will give a strong impulse to the development of high technologies and fundamental research in Vietnam, thereby positioning the country as a new nuclear player in Southeast Asia, which is increasingly thinking about nuclear energy, although we add that the news from the rest of Southeast Asia is extremely inconsistent and irregular, and we admit that it is even hard for us to follow the situation in the rest of this part of the world. 

Long history of delays and „net zero“ targets

As a reminder, the Ninh Thuan project was initially approved back in 2009, but in 2016 it was halted due to „economic circumstances“. Nevertheless, fieldwork never completely stopped – villages were relocated, and infrastructure upgraded, and Vietnam officially reactivated its nuclear ambitions in 2024, citing three key reasons:

1. Energy security
2. Economic development
3. Net-zero emissions goal (Net Zero)

The Vietnamese government has set an ambitious deadline: completion of the construction of two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan Province by the end of 2030, which we view as exceptionally ambitious, though we would not speculate on feasibility. But we note that for countries seeking fast energy independence, an “off-the-shelf” solution of large reactors remains the most concrete option and the fastest option.

All in all, Vietnam, thus, shows that it does not give up on nuclear power easily: even after a ten-year pause, the infrastructure and prepared site have enabled a relatively rapid return to the paused project, which represents a lesson in continuity – because a nuclear program is not a political mandate, but a national strategy.