Cuba marks 60th anniversary of relations with Viet-Nam

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 10 (ACN) Army General Raul Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic, presided this Wednesday over the political-cultural event for the six decades of diplomatic relations between Cuba and Vietnam, established on December 2, 1960.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, described the ties between these governments as special and exemplary and ratified the ideas of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz when he expressed that for Vietnam Cubans are willing to give even their very own blood.

He also pointed out that it has been 47 years since the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution visited the liberated zone in the south of the Vietnamese country, the only leader to do so in the midst of the war, and on that occasion, he expressed his infinite confidence in victory.

Marrero Cruz recalled moments of mutual support in the field of health, construction and economy, and highlighted that Vietnam is the second largest trading partner of the Greater Antilles in Asia and Oceania, as well as the largest investor in that region.

There is potential for expanding bilateral cooperation in sectors such as energy, telecommunications, tourism, medical services, agro-industry, food, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, among others, he added.

For his part, Le Thanh Tung, Vietnam's ambassador to Cuba, pointed out that for his people solidarity with the Cubans is part of their heart and quoted President Ho Chi Minh when he described both territories as twin brothers and vanguard combatants.

He referred to how the sons of Cuba gave their lives in the struggle for the liberation and national reunification of Vietnam, and thanked for the sending of Cuban medicines and doctors to Vietnamese lands to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.

The diplomat reaffirmed the position of his country against the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States towards the Island, and of support to the materialization of the process of updating the Cuban socioeconomic development model.

He took up again Diaz-Canel's words when he stated that the world will be much better if there are more relations like those of Cuba and Vietnam, and he called to raise the mechanisms of collaboration and to continue writing new pages of bilateral links.

The ceremony, held at the Revolution Palace, was also attended by members of the Political Bureau, ministers and representatives of state and government institutions, political and mass organizations, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnamese embassy in the Cuban capital.

Cuba was the first country to recognize the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and to welcome its permanent representation in Havana, then it did so with the provisional revolutionary government of that territory and opened an embassy there.