An art programme performed by Vietnamese and Laos youngsters at the event. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Đức

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam and Laos opened the youth friendship meeting and the “Following leaders’ footprints” programme 2022 in Hà Nội on Wednesday, with the participation of more than 300 youth delegates from Việt Nam and over 100 others from Laos.

Bùi Quang Huy, First Secretary of the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) Central Committee, said after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the two programmes have returned, giving the countries’ young people a chance to learn the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between Việt Nam and Laos and affirm their resolve to help maintain and further strengthen the relations.

The events also provide an occasion for young people to share experience in youth union affairs and children's movements while stepping up their studying and following late Presidents Hồ Chí Minh and Kaysone Phomvihane’s ideology, moral examples, and styles among the youth in each country, he noted.

Huy stressed the HCYU attaches special importance to the friendship and cooperation between the countries’ youngsters and acknowledges the need to make stronger efforts to lift this relationship to a new height.

For his part, Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union (LPRYU) Central Committee Monxay Laomuasong underlined the significance of the two programmes, during which the two sides will hold talks to exchange experience, discuss the youth situation and related activities, look back on the traditional friendship, and visit the sites of predecessors’ revolutionary activities.

Activities within the programmes will help enhance the special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic relations between the two Parties, States, peoples, as well as youth unions, he added.

At the opening ceremony, the LPRYU Central Committee and the HCYU Central Committee were bestowed with the first-class Labour Order of each other’s countries.

Party official welcomes Lao youth union delegation

The Party and State of Việt Nam always pay attention to and create the best possible conditions for young people of the two countries to exchange, cooperate, enhance mutual understanding, and develop together, said a Vietnamese Party official.

Politburo member and Standing member of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Secretariat Võ Văn Thưởng made the statement while receiving a delegation of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union (LPRYU) in Hà Nội on Wednesday. The LPRYU delegation was in Việt Nam to attend the two countries’ youth friendship meeting and the “Following Leaders’ Footprints” project.

Laomuasong, alternate member of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Secretary of the LPRYU Central Committee, informed his host about the outcomes of the cooperation agreement between the two youth unions.

He affirmed that the LPRYU will keep close coordination with the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union to carry out directions issued by the countries’ leaders, educate the young on traditional Việt Nam - Laos relations, increase mutual assistance, and intensify the unions’ cooperation in a practical and effective manner, thus contributing to relations between the two Parties, countries and peoples.

Speaking highly of the unions’ ties, Thưởng said the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Việt Nam and Laos founded by late Presidents Hồ Chí Minh and Kaysone Phomvihane and nurtured by generations of the countries’ leaders and people, is a priceless common asset.

The mission of the youth unions of Việt Nam and Laos is to maintain, nurture and continue developing this special and faithful solidarity, he emphasised.

The official added that amid the complicated global and regional situation, it is even more important for the unions to stay united, work more closely together, continue their reforms in a dynamic and creative way, and share experience to further contribute to the development of each nation as well as bilateral relations. — VNS