Havana (VNA) - TheCuban Association of Journalists (UPEC) presented the Felix Elmusa Medal – the highest honour of the organisation - to journalist and translator Vu Van Au, a former staffof the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), in recognition of his contributions to the popularisation of information onCuba’s social life and achievements across fields.

The 90-year-old Au was honoured at a ceremony on February 13 tolaunch the Vietnamese - Spanish Dictionary compiled by himself, which is the first bilingual dictionary of this kind compiledand printed in Vietnam.

Vu Trung My, Vice General Director of the Americas Department of the Party CentralCommittee’s Commissionfor External Relations, said his father has painstakingly compiled the dictionary since2009 with the hope that the publication will be a useful tool for studying Spanishin Vietnam, and serve as a bridge between Spanish-speaking countries andVietnam.

Journalist Walfredo Angulo, who was a reporter of Cuban news agency Prensa Latina in Indochina in 1983, recalled memories, support,and solidarity with colleagues from the VNA in particular andthe Vietnamese people in general in difficult years.

The Vietnamese journalist was one of the first 23 Vietnamese cadres sent tostudy Spanish in Cuba in 1961 at the proposal of Cuban revolutionary leaderFidel Castro with Vietnamese leaders. In 1966, for the first time, he became thehead of the VNA's office in Havana, where he continuously worked until1973. He again held a similar position in 1992-1996.

He was an interpreter for late Vietnamese and Cuban Presidents Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and other leadersand famous people.

At present, Au still joins activitiesto promote the special friendship and close solidarity between the two nations,and the compilation and translation of numerous books./.