Part of the country series of articles.
TRAVEL ADVISORY: NORMAL PRECAUTIONSThe Commonwealth advises travellers to exercise normal precautions when travelling in this country. Travellers should familiarise themselves with local laws and customs and consular availability.
| Socialist Republic of Vietnam | |
|---|---|
| Single-Party Socialist Republic | |
 |
|
| Capital | Hanoi |
| Languages | Vietnamese, French, and many regional languages |
| Population | 68,400,000 |
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a single-party state in Southeast Asia and prosperous for its region, having built a substantial industrial base and a reasonably high standard of living on Soviet backing and its own considerable organisational systems. It is aligned closely with the Soviet Union and its model of development, and regards China with deep and well-founded suspicion, devoting much of its foreign policy to countering Chinese influence across Indochina. It backs the Lao PDR as a client state and funds political movements elsewhere in the region that might complicate Chinese interests.
Despite political differences, Vietnam maintains a productive relationship with the Republic of Indochine, from which it imports a significant share of its food. The arrangement suits both parties, and the two countries manage their shared border and river systems with a pragmatism that their respective patrons occasionally find embarrassing. Hanoi is a crowded city of pleasant colonial boulevards and Soviet ministry blocks, and considers itself, with some justification, the political capital of Southeast Asian socialism.