Iraq–Vietnam relations

Iraq–Vietnam relations

Iraq	Vietnam

Iraq–Vietnam relations refers to the bilateral, economic and political relations between Iraq and Vietnam.

History

Under Saddam Hussein

Under the reign of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's relations with North Vietnam and later unified communist Vietnam was strong, with Iraq provided assistance and loans to Vietnam. Saddam Hussein had a long fondness of Vietnam and admired the determination of Vietnamese people. In 1971, the Vietnamese delegation received a warm welcome by the Iraqi government.

Moreover, Saddam Hussein made a breakthrough, when he did not demand any payment from Vietnam over Iraq's assistance, and even erased all debts of Vietnam to Iraq, during Vice President of Vietnam, Nguyễn Thị Bình, visited Iraq in 2002. Despite Saddam Hussein would be overthrown in 2003 following invasion of Iraq, this is still honored by later Iraqi leaders.

Post-Saddam Hussein

Following the 2003 war, the Vietnamese embassy staffs were evacuated from Iraq to Jordan. According from the memoir of Nguyễn Quang Khai, former Vietnamese ambassador to Iraq and a fluent speaker of Arabic language, the Vietnamese embassy was one of the few foreign embassies to remain untouched because of protection by locals, although suffering some damages. The new Iraqi leadership were also found to have treated the Vietnamese delegation more lenient compared to other foreign staffs in Iraq, despite having lost three men out of 13 personnel on its perilous journey from Jordan to Iraq. The Vietnamese government criticized the decision to wage war on Iraq led by the United States.

In 2018, Vietnam and Iraq celebrated 50 years of relationship. Vietnam, in recent years, provided significant aids to Iraq on its post-war reconstruction as a debt of the past support from Iraq.

See also

• Vietnam War
• Iraq War