Havana (VNA) - Vietnam’s DeputyForeign Minister Bui Thanh Son conducted the fifth political consultation withCuba’s First Deputy Foreign Minister  Marcelino Medina González as part ofhis official visit to Cuba on September 19-21.

During his stay in Cuba, Son met with Cuba’sMinister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Minister of ForeignTrade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz.

At the meetings, the two sides expressed theirpleasure at the growing traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperationbetween Vietnam and Cuba in all fields such as politics, economy-trade,security-defence, agriculture, construction, education, health care,biotechnology, transportation, and sports.

Vietnam and Cuba have maintained the exchange ofhigh-level delegations, especially after the historic visit to Cuba by PartyGeneral Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in March 2018 and the visit to Vietnam byPresident of the State Council and Council of Ministers of Cuba MiguelDíaz-Canel Bermúdez in November 2018.

The bilateral economic, trade and investmentrelations continue growing with two-way trade increasing 25 percentyear-on-year to reach 335.8 million USD in 2018.

The Vietnam-Cuba intergovernmental committee organizedthe 37th session in Hanoi on September 10-12, 2019 with good outcomes, contributingto promoting the bilateral cooperation in numerous fields.

Vietnam and Cuba have also maintained closecoordination and mutual support at international organisations and multilateralforums, especially at the United Nations.

The two countries agreed to strengthen theirspecial traditional relations as well as reinforce ties between the two foreignministries, particularly in arranging and preparing for high-level visits,organising political, economic, cultural and friendship activities, andpromoting people-to-people exchanges in 2020 in celebration of the 60thfounding anniversary of diplomatic ties.

They pledged to continue implementingeffectively cooperation mechanisms such as the theoretical workshop between thetwo communist parties, the intergovernmental committee, political consultationsbetween the foreign ministries, dialogues between the defence ministries, andthe Vietnam-Cuba business council.

The two foreign ministries affirmed that theywill coordinate with relevant ministries and departments to enhance economic,trade and investment cooperation, as well as facilitate investment in thefields of their strengths such as construction material, consumer goods,tourism-hotel, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals in order to bring two-waytrade to 500 million USD by 2022.

They also discussed regional and internationalissues of mutual concerns, including the situation in the EastSea./.