By Carlyle A. Thayer , Emeritus Professor, The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra

When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Vietnam last weekend, he took an important symbolic step in a long history of consolidating bilateral relations. Carlyle A. Thayer reviews a remarkable transformation that in five decades turned Vietnam from enemy to valued friend and partner.

In February 1973, the Whitlam Labor Government extended diplomatic recognition to the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV, North Vietnam), a recent adversary in the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, Australia and the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) are poised to become comprehensive strategic partners, a status Vietnam has only accorded to four countries – Russia, India, China, and South Korea. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently declared that Vietnam will become one of Australia’s top-tier partners.