Party General Secretary and state President Tô Lâm receives Cuban Ambassador to Việt Nam Orlando Nicolas Hernandez Guillen in Hà Nội on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Trí Dũng

HAVANA — The upcoming State visit to Cuba by Tô Lâm, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee and State President, is important and of great significance, stated Cuban Ambassador to Việt Nam Orlando Nicolas Hernandez Guillen.

The Vietnamese top leader is a great friend of the Cuban people, Party, and Government, he added.

The visit is very special, as it will be the first by a top leader of the Party and State of Việt Nam to Cuba, the diplomat told Vietnam News Agency ahead of the visit.

He said that during the visit, the two sides are expected to reach important agreements in the Party aspect, contributing to promoting the relations between the two Parties.

The Cuban diplomat held that delegation exchanges and meetings through the Party, parliament, and government channels will have positive impacts on the relationship between the two countries as well as important cooperation areas.

On the threshold of the visit, an inter-parliamentary meeting is held between the two sides with the participation of a vice chairman of Việt Nam's National Assembly (NA) and the President of the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba, as well as leaders of NA committees on economy, politics, and society of the two sides.

The outcomes of the meeting are expected to make direct contributions to the top Vietnamese leader’s visit, said the Cuban diplomat.

Noting that Lâm's entourage will include officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Việt Nam, he held that important agreements will be reached in the field.

The two sides also hope to further strengthen cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade, locality-to-locality collaboration, external relations and diplomacy.

The diplomat said that the visit will mark a historically significant moment. Cuba was the first country in the western hemisphere with which Việt Nam established relations.

Throughout the course of history, Việt Nam and Cuba have stood by each other's side and supported each other through difficult and complex moments, and fought common enemies. This is evidence of the special brotherhood between the two nations through the past 65 years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides promoted their mutual support by providing each other with supplies, medicine and vaccines.

For many years, Việt Nam has been an important partner in Cuba's economic opening policy. Việt Nam has been the biggest investor and second largest trade partner of Cuba in Asia, said the ambassador, expressing his hope that new investment cooperation deals will be reached in the future.

Meanwhile, Việt Nam is the only country outside the Latin American region that Cuba has signed an agreement on trade preferences, promoting the presence of Vietnamese products in the Cuban market, and facilitating the sale of Cuban medical products as well as other traditional ones such as rum and cigarettes in the Vietnamese market.

The two sides have signed a medium-term bilateral economic economic agenda, while launching the intergovernmental committee mechanism, and increasing exchanges in political and legal fields.

The strengthening of relations between the two parliaments, the two Ministries of Justice, and the two Supreme Courts has created favourable conditions for the two sides to exchange experience in areas that play a key role in bilateral ties.

Regarding the political relations between the two Parties, Ambassador Hernandez Guillen said that the two sides have organised theory conferences to increase experience exchange on Party building. Việt Nam and Cuba share many similarities, he said, explaining that the two countries are on the same development path under the leadership of the Communist Parties and face many challenges, both internal and external.

Bilateral cooperation in culture has also been promoted, he noted, revealing that one of the first activities to mark the 65th anniversary of the Việt Nam-Cuba diplomatic relations will be an art programme performed by the Cuban National Ballet.

The Cuban side plans to bolster exchange with Việt Nam at all levels from schools, organisations and women’s unions to various fronts, with an aim to diversify activities to celebrate this special occasion, the diplomat added.

He affirmed that all the agreements reached by the two sides across all fields aim to strengthen bilateral ties and learn from each other’s experience.

Amid the current complicated world situation with threats from all aspects, Cuba and Việt Nam have shared common viewpoints on the world's most pressing issues, the ambassador stated, emphasising that this visit will show the world that the two countries always support each other to face today's increasingly complex international challenges. — VNA/VNS