Promoting the “soft power” of Vietnam and the Russian Federation in the framework of cooperation in culture, education, tourism, and language learning amid geopolitical changes

In the context of global geopolitics with complex structural shifts, strengthening multilateral cooperation and effectively promoting soft power has become a strategic direction for many countries. The paper is based on the original definition of soft power and the foundation of relations between Vietnam and the Russian Federation to analyze the possibility of promoting the soft power of the two countries through cultural, educational, tourism and language dissemination cooperation in the current geopolitical context. Updating secondary documents in Russian, Vietnamese, English, especially documents from 2022-2025, based on the practice of cooperation between the two countries, with a systematic and interdisciplinary approach, the article synthesizes and focuses on explaining the obstacles to cooperation in each field (culture, education, tourism), identifies the causes of those obstacles, and points out that language barriers are the key to cooperation fields along with many other obstacles. The article proposes a number of new groups of solutions to promote the soft power of the two countries through culture, education, tourism and language dissemination. The bases for proposing solutions are based on the results of an overview of research, on Vietnam’s latest development viewpoint and leadership guidelines. The article concludes that in the context of fierce international competition, Vietnam and Russia need to quickly innovate their thinking, elevate cooperation in the direction of interdisciplinary - creative - digital - linked to development strategy, the two countries can firmly consolidate their comprehensive strategic partnership.