President Ho Chi Minh (C) and other delegates to the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961 (File Photo VNA)

Talking to Vietnam News Agency (VNA) correspondents in Russia on the occasion of the late leader’s 130th birthday (May 19), Manh said that in his position, he has met many leading officials of the Russian Federal State, localities, Russian researchers, and Russian friends who have expressed their sentiments and respect for President Ho Chi Minh.

The diplomat emphasised the role of the President in laying a foundation for the friendship between Vietnam and the Soviet Union in the past and Russia at present.

He revealed that on May 19, a video conference between Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam and Saint Petersburg of Russia will be organised, with Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan and Governor of Saint Petersburg Alexander Beglov expected to deliver speeches.

The Vietnamese diplomatic representative office in Russia is working with leading officials of Saint Petersburg to speed up the installation of a statue of President Ho Chi Minh in this Russian city where he first set food in the Soviet Union, Manh added.

On this occasion, the VNA correspondents in Russia also had a talk with Prof. Dr. Vladimir Kolotov, head of the Ho Chi Minh Institute under the Saint Petersburg State University.

Kolotov, one of the leading Russian scholars of Vietnamese studies, affirmed that President Ho Chi Minh always left a good impression on those who once met him.

The Ho Chi Minh Institute is the first foreign research institute named after the late President in the world, he stated, adding that this year’s May 19 also marks the institute’s 10th founding anniversary.

President Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19, 1890 in Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district, the north-central province of Nghe An. He devoted his whole life to the cause of national liberation, while tirelessly striving for peace and progress around the world.

He also led the struggle for national independence and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in 1945. The President passed away in 1969./.VNA