Hanoi | President Joe Biden cemented a new strategic relationship with Vietnam at the weekend, bringing two historical foes closer than they have ever been and putting the ghosts of the past behind them out of shared worry over China’s mounting ambitions in the region.

During a landmark visit to Hanoi by the American president, Vietnam’s Communist Party leadership formally raised the country’s ties with the United States to the highest level in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy, equivalent to those it has with Russia and China.