VATICAN CITY (AP) — Vietnam formally agreed Thursday to let a Vatican representative live in the country and open an office, a notching up of relations that could have implications down the line for the Holy See’s delicate ties with China.

The Holy See announced the conclusion of the agreement during a visit to the Vatican by Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, who met with Pope Francis and the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The agreement still falls short of full diplomatic relations, which have been strained for decades. But the two sides have held regular talks since at least 1990 studying the renewal of ties, with Parolin overseeing the process for years, first as foreign minister and now as secretary of state.

A Vatican statement said the appointment of a resident representative of the pope to the communist country would support the local Catholic community, contribute to the development of the country and help serve as a “bridge to advance relations between Vietnam and the Holy See.”

Irish singer Sinead O’Connor stands alone while the crowd boos her at Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary celebration in New York on Oct. 16, 1992, 13 days after she ripped a photo of Pope John Paul II during an appearance on "Saturday Night Live," left, and Pope John Paul II appears in his popemobil in Prague on April 21, 1990. More than 30 years later, her Saturday Night Live performance is remembered by some as an offensive act of desecration. But for others — including survivors of clergy sex abuse — O’Connor’s protest was prophetic, forecasting the global denomination’s public reckoning that was still to come. (AP Photo)

For clergy abuse survivors, Sinead O’Connor’s protest that offended so many was brave and prophetic

People walk in the excavation site of the ancient Roman emperor Nero's theater, 1st century AD, backdropped by the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, during a press preview, in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The ruins of Nero's Theater, an imperial theater referred to ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Season's Hotel, steps from the Vatican, after excavating the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020, as part of planned renovations on the Renaissance building. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Ruins of ancient Nero’s Theater discovered under garden of future Four Seasons near Vatican

FILE - Cardinal Angelo Becciu talks to journalists during press conference in Rome, on Sept. 25, 2020. The Vatican prosecutor asked a court Wednesday July 26, 2023 to convict 10 people, including Cardinal Becciu, of a range of financial crimes, sentence them between three to 13 years in prison and order the confiscation of some 415 million euros to pay the Holy See back for bad investments and financial losses over the past decade. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Vatican prosecutor seeks 7 years in jail for cardinal, confiscation of $460 million from 10 people

The Vatican’s delicate relationship with Vietnam has long been seen as something of a model for its relations with China, which severed diplomatic ties in 1951, following the Communists’ rise to power and the expulsion of foreign priests.

The Vatican and China signed an agreement in 2018 on bishop nominations, which both sides claimed as their own prerogative. But Beijing has repeatedly flouted it by appointing bishops without consulting the Holy See.

Recently, Parolin acknowledged the violations of the accord and said in comments to Vatican Media that one hoped-for way to improve relations with Beijing would be via the opening of a “stable office” in China.

“Such a presence would favor not only dialogue with civil authorities, but would contribute also to the full reconciliation inside the Chinese church and its path toward a desired normality,” Parolin told Vatican Media earlier this month.

Vatican officials have stressed that the opening of a Beijing office would have nothing to do with the status of diplomatic relations or suggest an imminent transfer of diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing. Rather, they have said, a fixed presence of an office in Beijing would facilitate dialogue over the issue of bishop nominations and the life of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican’s agreement with Vietnam to establish a resident Vatican envoy in Hanoi comes just months after the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, traveled to Hanoi to boost U.S.-Vietnamese relations.

Washington’s aim is to try to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and comes 50 years after the U.S. troop withdrawal that marked the end of America’s direct military involvement in Vietnam.