Vatican, Vietnam agree to upgrade relations

A handicraft vendor waits for shoppers on a foggy working day in front of a Catholic church soon after Sunday Mass in Vietnam’s northern vacation resort city of Sapa, north of Hanoi, February 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kham/File Image

VATICAN Metropolis, April 22 (Reuters) – The Vatican and Vietnam have agreed to up grade their relations, which have been slowly but surely enhancing due to the fact a total split immediately after the communist victory in the Vietnam War approximately half a century in the past.

A joint functioning group agreed at its most recent conference in Hanoi that in the around long run relations would be upgraded to the amount of household representatives in both Hanoi and Rome, a Vatican statement said on Friday.

This would be a person move small of full diplomatic relations with ambassadors, which have been the mentioned intention of the talks because they started in 2009.

Vietnam broke relations with the Vatican after the communists took about the reunified state at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. At the time, the authorities considered the Catholic Church in Vietnam as possessing been as well near traditionally to the previous colonial ability, France.

There are about seven million Catholics out of populace of about 97 million. Most Vietnamese practice folk religions or Buddhism.

Reporting by Philip Pullella
Modifying by Frances Kerry

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