Shortly after his trip to North Korea last week, Russian president Vladimir Putin was greeted in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, as an old friend. His 22-hour state visit received the highest level of reception and resulted in a number of agreements on energy and science and technology. There was also talk of the once-close allies collaborating on defence and security.
In many ways, this display of affection comes as no surprise. After all, it was the Communists in North Vietnam that won the war in 1975 with Soviet support and unified with Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and the south.
Many of Vietnam’s current political, business and academic elite also worked or studied in the Soviet Union over the following decade and are viscerally aware of the close relationship between it and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).
