HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc held telephone talks with First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) Central Committee and President of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel late Monday to seek measures to further promote special traditional ties between the two Parties, States and people.

The two leaders reaffirmed the unwavering solidarity and the spirit of mutual assistance in any circumstances between Việt Nam and Cuba, while agreeing to strengthen cooperation and exchange of experience in the process of building socialism in each country.

Phúc expressed his delight at the strong growth of Việt Nam-Cuba ties despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the two sides had maintained regular political dialogue at the highest level, including important phone calls between General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng and First Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Miguel Díaz-Canel and on May 5 and July 27.

He proposed leaders continue to direct ministries and sectors to overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and implement measures to reinforce and develop their cooperation in all fields, including effectively deploying collaboration mechanisms and food production programmes in Cuba, and maintaining the growth trend of bilateral trade and investment ties.

The Vietnamese leader spoke highly of Cuba’s experience in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the results of discussions between the two sides in supplying Cuba’s Abdala vaccine and transferring vaccine production technology to Việt Nam. The effective cooperation in this aspect will vividly demonstrate the special solidarity between the two countries in the current situation, he stressed.

President Díaz-Canel thanked the Party, State and people of Việt Nam for providing rice to help Cuba overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He affirmed that the Party and Government of Cuba will give drastic directions to ministries and sectors to continue implementing measures to further consolidate and develop the fraternal solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

Underlining Cuba’s great attention for vaccine cooperation with Việt Nam, the Cuban leader affirmed that from now to the end of this year, Cuba will supply a large volume of Abdala COVID-19 vaccines to Việt Nam and Cuba is also willing to send experts to transfer vaccine production technology to Việt Nam.

The two leaders concurred to continue maintaining close coordination and mutual support at international organisations and multilateral forums.

President Phúc reiterated Việt Nam’s consistent stance on strongly supporting the United Nations General Assembly's resolutions on demanding an end to the blockade and embargo against Cuba.

Attending the phone conversation on the Vietnamese side were Chairman of the Office of the President Lê Khánh Hải, Minister of Construction Nguyễn Thanh Nghị and other senior officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

On the Cuban side were Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Minister of Construction René Mesa Villafaña, senior officials of the Cuban Ministry of Health and executives of Cuban Biopharmaceutical Corporation (BioCubaFarma).

The State-owned company said its vaccine was highly effective against Delta variant, adding that just 21,000, or 0.8 per cent of the 2.5 million people inoculated with the vaccines, had gotten ill with the disease, and 0.003 per cent of the vaccinated had died. — VNS