and provide a new driving force for the country’s socio-economic development, said Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo.

In a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency ahead of the Congress, he said the CPV, founded by President Ho Chi Minh, is the genuine representative of fundamental interests of the Vietnamese people. Over the 91 years since its establishment, the CPV has led the Vietnamese people to take firm steps forwards and make historic contributions for the sake of national independence, liberation, and development and the people’s happiness.

The 13th National Party Congress is a significant political event of the CPV and State of Vietnam, the ambassador said, expecting that it will elect an unyielding and strong Party Central Committee for the new tenure that will win over the people’s wholehearted support and trust to continue leading the country’s socialism building to even greater success.

According to Xiong Bo, the international community, including China, pays special attention to the CPV’s 13th National Congress. China’s Party General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping, during the phone talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Phu Trong last September, underlined that the Communist Party of China supports the CPV to successfully organise the 13th national congress and is ready to continue assisting Vietnam in socialism building.

The diplomat went on to say that since the 12th National Party Congress, under the steadfast leadership of the CPV Central Committee, headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Vietnamese Party and Government have stepped up the Party building, the corruption combat, reforms, and development.

Since 2020, facing serious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CPV Central Committee has maintained strategic persistence and solidarity to lead the entire Party, army, and people to weather difficulties and realise the twin targets of fighting against the pandemic and sustaining socio-economic development, with growth of 2.9 percent - one of the world’s fastest growth rates last year.

Ambassador Xiong Bo also noted that as Chair of ASEAN and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2020, Vietnam successfully organised meetings within the East Asia cooperation framework, actively advocated multilateralism and free trade, promoted regional anti-pandemic cooperation, and improved its influence in the region and the world.

In particular, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), signed last year, is currently the largest free trade agreement around the globe, he noted, describing this as a success of multilateralism and free trade that will fuel growth momentum for the regional and global economy.

The development achievements Vietnam has obtained, especially the successful response against COVID-19, are all attributable to the CPV Central Committee’s steadfast leadership and the people’s support, like in China. This has reflected the unique advantages of the socialist regimes in the two countries, he added.

In the interview, the ambassador held that Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has been “extremely clear-sighted and sober” in the face of the current context. He quoted the Vietnamese Party leader as saying that the 13th National Party Congress takes place amid a fast and complicatedly changing world, the Party is still facing a number of difficulties and challenges, and that firmly maintaining the Party’s revolutionary and trailblazing nature and building an increasingly clean and strong Party are the prerequisites for continuous development.

“We expect that under the leadership of the new Central Committee, the CPV will continue to maintain and enhance its leadership role, actively seek ways to build and develop socialism in the new historical context, and make new theoretical and practical contributions, based on the goals to be set at the 13th National Congress, to attain greater progress in Vietnam’s socialism building efforts,” the Chinese ambassador said.

He emphasised that 2021 is the first year of the 13th-tenure CPV Central Committee and also the first year China begins a new stage of enhanced comprehensive national construction and modernisation.

He went on to say that in the new context, the two Parties and countries should strengthen solidarity and cooperation, adding that China is ready to join Vietnam in seriously realising the important common perceptions shared between the two Parties and countries’ leaders, increasing high-level strategic exchange and experience sharing, boosting connecting development strategies, and expanding result-oriented cooperation in all fields, thereby reaching a new height in both countries’ socialism building and bilateral relations./. VNA

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