Chile was the second country in Latin America and the first in South America to acknowledge the State of Vietnam in 1950.
Chile and Vietnam first established relations in 1971,[citation needed] when Vietnam was engaged in the Vietnam War. However, after Augusto Pinochet staged a coup d'état a year later and following North Vietnam's victory in 1975 the relationship became strained. [citation needed] Pinochet, an anti-communist, was hostile to the newly established communist government of Vietnam and there was no official relationship during the 1980s between the right-wing anti-communist Chilean junta and Communist Vietnam. [citation needed]
Economic relations
Throughout the late 1980s both countries witnessed big changes. Vietnam began their economic reform in 1986 while Chile transferred from junta to democracy in 1990. The relationship thawed. Chile has become one of Latin America's largest economic investors to Vietnam.[1] As of 2017[update], Vietnam is Chile's second largest trading partner in the ASEAN.[2]
The two countries have been deepening their trade and economic relations[3] which are now much deeper than the usual trade relations between two countries, as praised by Ambassador of Chile to Vietnam Claudio de Negri.[4]
Both nations signed a Free-Trade Agreement in 2014 and was re-affirmed by President Michelle Bachelet in her visit to Vietnam at 2017.[5]
