Following his arrival in Hanoi for a two-day official visit on Monday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez praised the communist regime of the Asian country as an example of socialist revolution and he advocated a deeper cooperation between developing countries.
 
Chávez initialed three cooperation accords in the fields of culture, diplomacy and energy. He reminded that the Vietnamese defeated "imperialism" and he matched Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh to Liberator Simón Bolívar.

"While this is the first time I visit Vietnam, I feel that there are similarities between our countries;" Chávez said following a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet.

"The brave Vietnam defeated imperialism not only in the battlefield. Vietnam has also managed to keep socialism in the ideological field," he added, as quoted by Efe.

Further, Chávez claimed that developing nations should learn about Vietnam' fight against poverty.