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| President Raul Castro and Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong (Photo: VNA) |
(VOVworld) – Raul Castro, First Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party and President of the Cuban State Council and Council of Ministers, concluded a 3-day official visit to Vietnam today. During this visit, Vietnamese Party and Government leaders affirmed the sustainability of Vietnam’s friendship with Cuba and vowed to bring it to a new level. VOV editor Thu Hoa summarizes the results of Castro’s visit.
This visit is the visit of a close friend of Vietnam. Vietnamese leaders received him like a brother. Vietnamese Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong said at a banquet in Castro’s honor. He noted that a century ago Cuban hero Jose Marti introduced to his people a brave and creative Vietnamese nation in his book entitled Golden Age. Over the years, relations between Vietnam and Cuba have deepened, summed up in Fidel Castro’s immortal words ‘For Vietnam, Cuba is ready to shed its blood’. Party leader Trong said the Cuban Party, Government, and people are a wholehearted and loyal friend who is always side by side with Vietnam in its national liberation struggles and construction efforts. Vietnamese and Cuban people always bear in mind the image of President Fidel Castro who held aloft the banner of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam during his visit to a newly liberated area in Quang Tri in 1973. Raul Castro says ‘We always bear in mind the image of President Ho Chi Minh who led the Vietnamese people to set up the first Socialist country in Southeast Asia. I was specially privileged to directly meet him in my first visit to Vietnam 46 years ago. Cuban people will forever be side by side with its Vietnamese peers to nurture the brotherhood between the two nations so that it will continue to grow and flourish. I believe that is the wish of both peoples’.
In separate talks with Vietnam’s Party leader, State President, NA Chairman, and Prime Minister, President Castro agreed to strengthen cross-cultural exchanges, educate the younger generations about Vietnam-Cuba solidarity, and organize joint seminars between the two Parties. Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong says ‘The visit promotes a new development in the relations between the two Parties, and Governments, and the realization of recently signed joint agreements and declarations. Vietnam has pledged to promote economic and trade measures that match the new circumstances and interests of each country’.
Castro’s visit to Vietnam following Party General Secretary Trong’s visit to Cuba is a significant milestone in the history of the two countries.