The Israeli flag flew from a hotel in Hanoi last week as Israeli and Vietnamese officials signed their first economic cooperation agreement.
The accord could be the prelude to full diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to Sever Plotzker, a correspondent for the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot. He believes an Israeli Embassy will open in Hanoi as early as this summer or, at the latest, by year’s end.
Plotzker was in Hanoi reporting on the first Israeli trade delegation to visit the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The historic signing took place in the banquet hall of Victory Hotel, on the banks of the Red River, under the economical glow of a single ceiling lamp.
The signatories were Avraham Bliss, president of the Israel-Asia Trade Office, and Pam Che Lan, a former leader of the Vietcong, now a member of the inner circle that decides Vietnam’s foreign and economic policies.
Israel’s interest in establishing trade and commercial ties with Vietnam was evident from the size and composition of its delegation.
Members included representatives of Israel Military Industries, Israel Aviation Industries, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Zim Lines, Israel’s national shipping company.
They held scores of meetings in Vietnam, signed import-export contacts and agreed on the submission of tenders for others, Plotzker wrote.
Vietnam is one of the rapidly dwindling number of Communist nations which lately have sought normal diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Israel and China established full diplomatic relations in January.
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