On April 26, General Nguyen Van Bach, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City War Veterans’ Association, stated this during a meeting with overseas reporters who came to learn more about the historical event that marked a successful end to the Vietnamese people’s 35 year long struggle to liberate the south and reunify the country.

“Thirty-five years have gone by and Vietnam has now become a single and stable country that is growing rapidly, ‘leaving the past behind and looking towards the future’,” said Bach.

The South East Asian nation now wants to befriend every country in the world, he added.
General Bach said he hopes that by visiting the country, the foreign journalists would further understand the legitimacy of the past wars of resistance and become more supportive of the Vietnamese people’s current programme of national construction.

The meeting was part of the “Foreign Media Week” that runs from April 25 to May 1, to mark the 35^th anniversary of the liberation of the south and national reunification. It was attended by 13 journalists working for media agencies in eight countries, including Russia, the US, India, China, the Republic of Korea, the UK, Mongolia and Cambodia.

During the week, the journalists also met with several Vietnamese veterans to learn about the struggle for national independence, particularly the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign in 1975.

They will also meet with former senior officers of the old regime and patriotic figures as well as the city’s authorities to learn more about development in trade and investment.