The agreement was reached during working sessions in Havana on December 5 between senior Cuban Party and National Assembly leaders and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam National Assembly, who was visiting Cuba.  

Ms Ngan briefed her hosts on Vietnam’s development achievements in 2011 and the results of the recent NA session which approved the 2011-2015 socio-economic development plan towards the goal of turning Vietnam into an industrial nation by 2020.

She praised Cuba’s achievements in national construction and defence and voiced Vietnam’s strong support for the Latin American nation’s revolutionary cause. She reiterated Vietnam’s policy of further strengthening solidarity and friendship with the Cuban Party, Government, National Assembly and people.

Jose Ramon Balaguer, head of the Department of International Relations under the Communist Party of Cuba, and Jaime Crombet, vice president of the Cuban National Assembly, thanked the Vietnamese people for their heart-felt support to Cuba over the years.

They confirmed Cuba’s determination to speed up economic development along with defending the revolutionary cause for the sake of social equality and national sovereignty.

Crombet stressed that the Cuban legislative body is finalising its legal system in line with the economic development model pursued by the Communist Party of Cuba.   

He conveyed National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon’s invitation to visit Cuba to Vietnamese National Assembly chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung.

Later the same day, Ricardo Alarcon met with Ms Ngan who reaffirmed Vietnam’s solidarity with Cuba and demanded that the US end its economic embargoes against the Latin American nation.

During her stay in Havana, Ms Ngan met with Kenia Serrano, President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP) and Yolanda Ferrer, President of the Cuba-vietnam Friendship Association.