Deputy Defence Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang is in Cuba for an official visit from September 8-11. 

Deputy Defence Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang.

He heads a delegation of senior officers to visit Cuba at the invitation of Alvaro Lopez Miera, First Vice Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The four-day visit aims to reinforce the friendship and deepen mutual understanding between the two countries’ armies and the armies’ General Staff. 

Giang and Miera will discuss ways to implement the bilateral defence cooperation agreed by both sides during a recent visit of Vietnamese Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich to Cuba, and plans for cooperation between 2017 and 2019. 

Vietnam’s National Day marked in Cuba

Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh

The Vietnamese Embassy in Cuba on September 6 held a ceremony to mark the 72nd anniversary of Vietnam’s August Revolution (August 19) and National Day (September 2).

The event was attended by Cuban Justice Minister Maria Esther Reus Gonzalez and nearly 500 representatives of the host party, state, parliament, diplomatic delegations of other nations, and the overseas Vietnamese community in Cuba.

Addressing the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh extended his gratitude for the support the Cuban people have provided for Vietnam, adding that he expects Cuba will continue making great socio-economic progress.

Thanh also expressed his hope that Vietnam and Cuba will raise bilateral cooperation in economics, trade and investment, science-technology, education, health care to the level of the political relations.

During the occasion, hosts and guests discussed international and domestic issues of common interest, and enjoyed traditional Vietnamese food.

On September 2, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence, founding the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.-

Hanoi leader welcomes leaving Cuban Ambassador

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung (centre) and his Cuban guest (second from left) 

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung on September 7 hosted a reception for Cuban Ambassador Hermenio Lopez Diaz who came to bid him farewell at the end of his tenure in Vietnam.

Lauded the leaving ambassador’s role in promoting the friendship between the two nations, Chung highlighted that Vietnam and Cuba have bonded by special relations laid by late President Ho Chi Minh and late Leader Fidel Castro and nurtured by generations of leaders and people from both nations.

Hanoi and Havana, particularly, have been growing robustly in multi fields, he said, expressing his hope that Hermenio Lopez Diaz will further his efforts to promote cooperation between the two countries in his new role.

Hanoi is willing to cooperate and create favourable conditions for the Cuban Embassy to fulfill its mission, helping elevate the special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation relations between Vietnam and Cuba to a new height, he stressed.

For his part, the Cuban Ambassador said that the embassy has connected the two countries through high-level exchanges, trade and economic cooperation and investor attraction.

It has paid due attention to fostering collaboration between Hanoi and Cuban enterprises in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, he added.

VNA