President of the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba concludes visit to Vietnam

On the morning of November 3, President of the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba Esteban Lazo Hérnandez and the delegation of the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba left Hanoi, successfully concluding their working visit to Vietnam.

Seeing off the President of the Cuban National Assembly and the delegation at Noi Bai airport were: Chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee Vu Hai Ha, Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Orlando Nicolás Hernández Guillén.

At the National Assembly House, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man presided over the welcoming ceremony for Cuban National Assembly Chairman Esteban Lazo Hernandez. Immediately after the welcoming ceremony, the two National Assembly Chairmen held talks.

During his working visit to Vietnam, General Secretary To Lam received and President Luong Cuong met with President of the Cuban National Assembly Esteban Lazo Hérnandez.

The visit is of great significance, continuing to strengthen and promote parliamentary cooperation between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the Cuban National Assembly, contributing to deepening the special solidarity and fraternal relations between Vietnam and Cuba.

During the working visit to Vietnam by Cuban National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hérnandez, the leaders of the two sides agreed to affirm that, over the 64 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the solidarity and close relationship between Vietnam and Cuba, nurtured by President Ho Chi Minh and leader Fidel Castro, has continuously developed well, becoming a rare brotherly relationship with high political trust, a model in international relations.

The Party, State and people of Vietnam highly value and are determined to further deepen the special, exemplary and loyal solidarity between Vietnam and Cuba through all channels and in all fields; together with the Cuban people, we will preserve, develop and pass it on to future generations.

The special traditional friendship between Vietnam and Cuba has been constantly consolidated and enhanced through all channels of the Party, State, parliamentary cooperation and people-to-people exchange; increasingly deepening and substantive in all fields of politics, economics-trade, security-defense, science-technology, etc.

The special relationship between the two countries has made many positive developments after the State visit to Cuba by General Secretary and President To Lam in September 2024. During this visit, the two sides issued a Vietnam-Cuba Joint Statement with the determination to continue to strongly develop the bilateral relationship to a new level of comprehensiveness, substance, effectiveness and sustainability, in the spirit of working together, cooperating together, developing together, for the cause of developing and building socialism, for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, cooperation and development in each region and the world.

Sharing the difficulties that the Cuban Party, State and people are trying to overcome due to the blockade, embargo, incidents and natural disasters, Vietnam stands in solidarity with Cuba, calling for the removal of unilateral blockade and embargo measures against Cuba and removing Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

Vietnam wishes to deepen and further enhance the effectiveness of its cooperative relations with the brotherly country of Cuba in all fields, making the most of the strengths of both sides, in the context of the two countries aiming to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2025 (December 2, 1960 - December 2, 2025), which has been named the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Year by the two countries' senior leaders.

The President of the Cuban National Assembly thanked the Party, State and people of Vietnam for donating 10,000 tons of rice to Cuba, emphasizing that this was a timely gesture in the context of Cuba facing human and property losses caused by Hurricane Oscar as well as difficulties caused by the energy and food crisis.

The two sides expressed their delight at the development of good relations between the legislative bodies of the two countries with high-level visits and important cooperation activities, bringing the relationship between the two countries' parliaments into depth and effectiveness; the positive and substantial contributions of the two countries' parliaments to consolidating and strengthening the special, exemplary and loyal solidarity between Vietnam and Cuba.

In order to continue promoting the good results of the First Session of the Vietnam-Cuba Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in the spirit of the signed Cooperation Protocol, the Vietnamese National Assembly wishes to continue to strengthen cooperation with the Cuban National Assembly with new, deeper cooperation contents and mechanisms.

Specifically, the two National Assemblies will continue to exchange delegations at all levels, Committees, National Assembly deputies of the two countries, and two friendship groups of parliamentarians to exchange professional experience in the fields of legislation, supervision and decision-making on important issues of the country; increase information exchange and experience sharing in direct or online forms on organizing the activities of the National Assembly, building and perfecting institutions and legal systems in areas of mutual interest.

The two sides agreed to actively and effectively implement the high-level commitments and agreements reached during the State visit to Cuba by General Secretary and President To Lam in September 2024 as well as the results of the first inter-parliamentary meeting of the two countries' National Assemblies; at the same time, continue to closely coordinate and support each other at international organizations and multilateral forums.