Cuban PM’s Vietnam visit aims to continue cultivating fraternity

The Vietnam-Cuba relationship is a special one, meaning the forthcoming visit to Vietnam by Cuban PM Cruz is very important.

This represents the first time in 49 years that a Cuban PM has visited the country, with the position only being restored by the Cuban side after amending the 2019 Constitution.

The upcoming visit of the Cuban PM aims to further reinforce the fraternity, solidarity, comprehensive co-operation, and mutual trust between the Party, State, and people of the two countries. It is also an opportunity for senior leaders of both sides to agree on specific directions and measures aimed at further strengthening bilateral economic, trade, and investment ties.

Talking about the outstanding achievements made in terms of the friendship and co-operation over recent times, Ambassador Tung said the special relationship, as Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro once assessed, is a symbol of the times in international relations.

During recent years, the leaders of the Party, State, and people of the two countries have constantly consolidated fraternity, solidarity, comprehensive co-operation, and mutual trust, with this reflected across specific fields.

Despite the pandemic, Party, State, Government, and NA leaders have regularly maintained exchanges on measures which seek to strengthen and deepen the bilateral relationship.

Most notably, 2020 saw the top leaders of the two parties hold three phone calls, with September, 2021, seeing President Nguyen Xuan Phuc make an official visit to Cuba.

This time, PM Cruz, on behalf of Cuban leaders, will pay an official visit to Vietnam. These actions therefore contribute to strengthening and deepening the political relationship, which is closely linked between the Party, State, and people of the two nations.

Furthermore, co-operation mechanisms have been established in all channels of Party, State, and Government, while ties between ministries, sectors, localities, socio-political organisations, and between the peoples of the two countries have also been maintained. Indeed, they are increasingly effective in all fields such as politics, economics, trade, along with science and technology.

Despite facing difficulties, economic, trade, and investment co-operation between the two countries continues to be of interest and development, especially in terms of future investment.

In line with this, Vietnam is currently the largest investor in the Asia-Oceania region in Cuba.

Several 100% foreign-invested projects and joint ventures between the two sides have been established and put into operation.

Many important Vietnamese enterprises pay close attention to the Cuban market and have visited the Caribbean nation in a bid to seek co-operation and investment opportunities.

Furthermore, the two countries have also maintained relations and offered mutual support at both international and multilateral forums.

One of the main purposes of the by the Cuban PM is to further enhance bilateral economic, trade, and investment co-operation, the Vietnamese Ambassador went on to say.

Through this visit, senior leaders will agree on specific directions and measures aimed at further improving co-operation mechanisms of the Vietnam-Cuba Intergovernmental Committee whilst incentivising firms to invest in areas where the two sides have strengths and can complement each other. This is as well as meeting Cuba's priorities in the current socio-economic development process, especially in the fields of production and food processing, renewable energy including solar and wind power, and tourism infrastructure.

“Vietnamese enterprises are also highly interested in investing in these fields. I hope that during the visit of Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz to Vietnam, the two sides will sign specific contracts and projects in the foresaid areas,” Ambassador Tung stated.

During this visit the two sides will sign a Joint Action Plan to implement the bilateral health agenda for the 2023 to 2025 period, covering bilateral ties in more than 10 fields, including economics, commerce, agriculture, industry, construction, transportation, science and technology, and many other areas, he added.