Youths urged to write new chapters of Vietnam-Cuba ties

• Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has talks with Cuban leader Raul Castro
• Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong active in France

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at the meeting. (Source: VNA)

Speaking at a meeting with Vietnamese and Cuban youths in Havana, Cuba, on March 29 afternoon (local time), the Party leader said the special relationship is rare in the world’s contemporary history. 

The relationship had been fostered by former leaders of both countries like Jose Marti, Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh, and cultivated by generations of Vietnamese and Cuban leaders, he said. 

Despite the geographical distance, Vietnam and Cuba share a lot of similarities, Party General Secretary Trong said, noting that the fraternal friendship was formed and developed thanks to historical similarities of the two countries. 

Over the past nearly 60 years since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties (December 2, 1960), Vietnam and Cuba have stood side by side during the past struggle for national liberation and freedom, as well as the present national construction and defence, the leader said. 

He described their friendship and fraternity as a symbol of era and a valuable asset shared by the Parties and people of the two countries. 

He recalled Cuban revolutionary Leader Fidel Castro Ruz’s immortal sayings such as “For Vietnam, Cuba is willing to shed its blood,” as well as President Ho Chi Minh’s affirmation of close-knit relations between Vietnam and Cuba as siblings despite their geographical distance. 

Expressing his delight at the unceasingly reinforced friendship and solidarity between the two countries’ young people, he asked the youth organisations and young people of Vietnam and Cuba should push ahead with practical cooperation activities to share experience and support each other to contribute to their countries’ development.

He voiced his belief that with their creativity, enthusiasm and strong will, young Vietnamese and Cubans will inherit the glorious traditions from the previous generations to devote themselves to bilateral relations.

Echoing the CPV leader’s view, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, Politburo member and First Vice President of the Cuban Councils of State and Ministers, said youth training is important to educating the young on the two nations’ distinguished history, thus inspiring their sense of responsibility in protecting the everlasting values of independence and freedom that the previous generations sacrificed their lives to gain.

He voiced his belief that the countries’ solidarity, friendship and cooperation will be maintained as a precious asset of the two nations by current and future generations.

At the event, in the presence of the two countries’ leaders, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Young Communist League of Cuba signed a cooperation agreement to boost youth exchange and cooperation activities.

On this occasion, Politburo member and Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Tong Thi Phong and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez presented the Friendship Order, a noble award of the State of Vietnam, to five Cuban war veterans who came to Vietnam to assist the struggle for national liberation and reunification.