Yes, that's definitely a plus. Even if your countries' governments are officially hostile (or even at war), the people of those countries generally will get along with each other when they happen to meet. (Well, the civilians will). Exceptions do exist, but usually for religious fanaticism rather than political.

For example: my wife and I are Americans living overseas, in a country I won't disclose (on general principles) except to say that it's in a part of Asia where Iranian nationals are rare. About ten years ago we met an Iranian man who was getting the same master's degree that my wife was getting from a local university. We became friends, and although we don't see him and his wife nearly as often now that they've moved to another city, we saw them just a couple months ago when they were back in our (larger) city for a conference. And even though our two countries were officially at war with each other by that time, it didn't matter to our friendship. No awkwardness, no strain, just "Hi (name), I didn't know you were in town," and so on.

At the height of the cold war, we had Russians in the US and it's not as though people went after them with pitchforks. We also had people like Bernie (not just him) visit the USSR and most weren't thrown in jail -some were, obviously, but the great majority were not. So I don't think that's exceptional because there is usually a defined context for hostile action to take place. Even when you have sworn enemies who have plotted against a nation (or similar entity), it's not like they immediately go on to execute their plan. They set a target and go after that --often times you get accounts of that person being at most detached but often "they seemed friendly, I never imagined..." Basically if you don't get in the way of their plans, there is no reason to have you as collateral as you are not significant to their goal.