Biden lands in Vietnam to upgrade diplomatic ties to counter China threat – and honor John McCain alongside fellow vet John Kerry

President Joe Biden was welcomed to Hanoi, Vietnam Sunday with lots of pomp as the country upgrades its relationship with the U.S. to that of a closest ally. 

Biden arrived in Hanoi Sunday afternoon after spending two days in India at the G20 Leaders’ Summit. 

He was then whisked to the Presidential Palace where he treated to a welcome ceremony by Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong that included a musical performance and dozens of schoolchildren waving both countries’ flags.

With Biden was former Secretary of State and Sen. John Kerry, whose service in the Vietnam War, and subsequent objection to the conflict, was a major piece of the Democrat’s 2004 presidential run. 

The two former Senate colleagues will pay tribute Monday to one of their own – Republican Sen. John McCain – who was held as a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam after his plane was shot down on October 26, 1967. 

Dozens of school children holding up both American and Vietmanese flags participated in the welcome ceremony for President Joe Biden at the Presidential Palace on Sunday 

President Joe Biden is welcomed to Vietnam at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday 

There’s now a memorial at the crash site.  

In India at the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Biden was able to firm up relationships with other world powers, with two major absences – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Biden’s trip to Vietnam gives him another opportunity to try to sway a growing regional economy that falls within China’s fear.

U.S. officials are cheering Vietnam’s designation of the U.S. at a new level of strategic partnership, the highest offered. 

But top Vietnamese officials were also tending to their relations with China before Biden’s arrival, a decision that reflects China’s powerful sway and long-term commitment, despite longstanding tensions between the two nations.

Vietnam ‘can’t be sure that the United States would really come to their defense if push came to shove with China,’ John Ciociari, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Gerald R. Ford School’s Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan told DailyMail.com.

‘It still is heavily reliant on China for trade and investment,’ he noted.