In just four days, Russian President Vladimir Putin has angered Washington, weakened Beijing’s influence and unnerved some Indo-Pacific countries already scrambling to cope with a chaotic world order.

After visiting the red communist capitals of Pyongyang and Hanoi this week, Mr. Putin left behind a redrawn risk map of Asia. At its center is North Korea: a rogue nuclear state that routinely threatens its neighbors and has suddenly been emboldened by Russia’s promises of cutting-edge military aid and a mutual defense treaty.

Putin has also signed at least a dozen agreements with Vietnam — a country that is growing in importance to China and the United States as they compete for influence — and he insisted that “closed military-political blocs” cannot create a “reliable security architecture.”

The visit was both provocative and disruptive, suggesting that the power struggle sometimes described as a new “Cold War” between China and the United States is less binary than it seems, and that many countries in the region appear to be feeling a deeper unease after a week in which they have been at odds with each other.

Putin’s visit and his sometimes brazen, sometimes vague threats have put these countries on edge over security and great power competition.It’s not easy to calculatebecomes more complicated.

Over the past few years, the Indo-Pacific region has been deeply affected by the geopolitical tussle between the United States and China, mainly around China’s sovereignty claims over Taiwan and its increasing militarization in the South China Sea.

In May, China conducted two days of intensive naval and air force exercises around Taiwan in what it called a “severe punishment.” The drills came after Taiwan’s new president pledged to defend the sovereignty of the self-governing island, which Beijing considers a breakaway territory.

Just last week, another flashpoint — the South China Sea — came to the brink of conflict. After months of intense confrontation in the blue chokepoint of global trade, Chinese and Philippine ships collided Monday near a disputed archipelago, injuring a Philippine Navy sailor. The United States is obliged by treaty to help its ally the Philippines in the event of war, amplifying the potential impact of the incident.

Many countries in the region are already strengthening their militaries in response to pressure from China and uncertainty about how far the U.S.-China competition might develop.

Add to those concerns a wave of unease in the region over the U.S. presidential election, not to mention a new report this month showing China is “substantially” increasing its nuclear capabilities, and headaches are becoming commonplace in the region’s foreign policy circles.

Now, Mr. Putin has created some new headaches. With his support for North Korea, including open threats to provide Mr. Kim’s military with more powerful weapons, he has effectively added another potential crisis to Asia’s list of concerns, reigniting hostilities on the Korean Peninsula.

Officials in South Korea and Japan, avowed enemies of North Korea, are particularly concerned. The two countries have discussed beefing up their defenses and increasing cooperation with each other and the United States, especially as Kim’s rhetoric has become noticeably more hostile toward them in recent months.

According to Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Putin’s activities in Asia are “your worst fears come true.”

“What Russia has just done is tell us that it will be the leading organizer of rogue states that are developing nuclear weapons, violating the non-proliferation treaty, and allowing countries that are under U.N. sanctions to get away with it,” he said.

Peter Tesch, who served as Australia’s ambassador to Moscow from 2016 to 2019, stressed that Putin is happy to keep the world in chaos because he believes Russia can benefit from throwing other countries into chaos. Disinformation and cooperation with other provocateurs have become Putin’s principles.

“He’s happy to make Russia the smelliest, most farting uncle at the barbecue,” Tesch said. “He’s sending the message, ‘Yes, I’m disruptive. I can make things more complicated that you’re trying to manage.'”

China, as North Korea’s largest trading partner and arguably the country with the most influence over it, must also deal with the consequences. That may include coming under pressure to clarify what its “endless” friendship with Russia means for its stated goal of stabilizing the Korean Peninsula.

Some analysts believe Putin has taken all of this into account, and that his increased ties with Kim, who greeted him with a hug at the airport, may be as much an effort to intimidate the United States as it is to express displeasure with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, for not doing more to help Russia prevail in Ukraine.

“If Putin doesn’t get everything he wants from Beijing, he’ll try to get it somewhere else, and there aren’t many places that can satisfy his wish list — weapons, labor, willingness to pick a fight with Washington,” said Samuel Green, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London. “Iran is one. North Korea is another.”

“The problem is that while Putin recognizes his dependence on China, he cannot let Beijing dictate the course of the war, because wherever the war goes, Putin will go there.”

In part, Putin’s Asia tour was also a sharp reminder of Russia’s historic military ties: For decades, countries like North Korea, India and Vietnam have relied heavily on Russian weaponry, forming training and maintenance ties that have embedded Moscow deeply in the region.

But even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, these ties were already frayed:Independent ResearchRussian arms sales to Southeast Asia fell from $1.2 billion in 2014 to $89 million in 2021. Putin has been trying to delay the severance of these relationships or a significant diversification.

If Putin’s posture toward North Korea ends up fueling an arms race in Asia, Moscow will also benefit: Sharing Russian weapons with a country like North Korea not only increases the risk of chaos but also generates revenue, which is badly needed for an economy plagued by sanctions, war, inflation, and 16% interest rates.

The focus of Mr. Putin’s trip to Hanoi was on striking deals. It is not clear what all has been agreed, but analysts predict that some of them could turn out to be defense-related, with financing designed to circumvent international sanctions — perhaps in the form of payments for oil and gas rights in the South China Sea.

“Vietnam hasn’t done a major upgrade to its Army in years, but that’s said to be coming,” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corp. “You may see Vietnam buy new Russian tanks.”

Vietnam also needs new fighter jets and larger warships comparable to those Beijing has, which it uses to stake its claim to territorial claims in the South China Sea, said Nguyen The Phuong, who studies Vietnamese military affairs at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

He also noted that Asia’s high-risk security situation has put countries such as Vietnam in a difficult position. “Western weapons are both expensive and politically sensitive,” he said.

But will Vietnam use its new Russian equipment to counter China over oil reserves it is exploring in partnership with Moscow and that both Beijing and Hanoi claim?

For many countries, Putin’s trip raises a new round of such uncomfortable questions. Beijing has clearly sided with Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Putin visited Beijing in May, and while his trip to North Korea may have upset Xi, analysts do not expect a major rift in relations.

Annoying one of the two leaders could result in punishment from the other or both.

“I think there is some concern about the strengthening of the China-Russia relationship,” Mr. Rossman said. “There is a fear that the two countries could potentially unite against smaller and medium-sized countries.”

At a defense conference in Singapore this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that was already happening, accusing China and Russia of colluding to derail a Ukrainian-led peace summit in Switzerland last week that was attended by only a handful of Asian countries.