Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming officialvisit to Vietnam by Chairman of the Cuban National Assembly Esteban LazoHernandez from June 11-18 demonstrates the desire of the two countries toenhance their special traditional relations, solidarity and comprehensivecooperation.

Since Vietnam and Cuba established diplomaticties in December 1960, the bilateral relations have been incessantly reinforcedand developed. 

Fidel Castro was the first and only foreignleader to visit the southern liberation area of Vietnam in 1973, when the warwas still going on. 

Cuba was also the first Latin American countryand one of the first nations in the world to recognise the National LiberationFront of South Vietnam.

After the wartime, Cuba still stood side by sidewith Vietnamese people in the cause of national reconstruction and development,helping the Southeast Asian country to build transport infrastructure, developanimal husbandry and train human resources in the fields of agriculture,construction, architecture, medicine, and social sciences.

Promoting that special tradition, Vietnamese andCuban leaders and peoples have spared no efforts to deepen the bilateralrelations via regular high-level visits and implementation of cooperationmechanisms such as the inter-governmental committee, the Parties’ theoreticalworkshop, the foreign ministries’ political consultation, and thedefence-security dialogue.

Both nations have also maintained coordinationand mutual support at international organizations and multilateral forums,especially at the United Nations.

Regarding the parliamentary relations, theVietnamese National Assembly regularly sends delegations to Cuba.

Most recently were the visitsto Cuba by NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong in February 2017 and a NA specializedgroup in March 2017.

A Vietnamese delegation led byNA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the funeral of Cuban leader FidelCastro in November 2016.

The two legislatures alsoestablished friendship parliamentarians’ groups.

Along with sound political relations, thebilateral economic-trade ties also received due attention. Two-way tradereached 247.64 million USD in 2016. Currently, Vietnam is the second largest tradepartner of Cuba in Asia. Vietnam mainly exports rice, coal, chemicals,garment-textile and computers to Cuba while importing pharmaceutical productsfrom the market.

Vietnam helped Cuba implement a rice farmingproject in 2011-2015, which yielded good outcomes, as did some projects incultivating maize, soybean and developing aquaculture. The two sides willconsider more agriculture-fisheries joint projects in the coming time.

Over the past few years, theVietnamese government has encouraged and created the most favourable conditionsfor the two countries’ businesses to expand cooperation.

More Vietnamese firms are keento explore investment opportunities in Cuba. The Latin American country iscalling for Vietnamese investment in food production, oil and gas explorationand mining, industry, tourism, bio-technology, and priority fields at theMariel special economic zone.

Both nations also hope to boost cooperation intelecommunication, defence-security, education-training, culture-medicine, andscience-technology.

During the trip to Vietnam, the Cubanparliamentary delegation wants to study the role, functions, apparatus andactivities of the Vietnamese legislature, especially of the NA StandingCommittee, as well as share experience in renovation and national development.-VNA