Cuban Ambassador to Việt Nam Rogelio Polanco Fuentes. — VNS Photo Khánh Chi

Việt Nam's historical journey from 1945 to the present day is a miracle of the will, ingenuity, and unity of an entire people and its exceptional leadership, with President Hồ Chí Minh as its founder and subsequent generations who have remained faithful to his legacy.

Achieving independence, achieving national liberation and reunification, and rebuilding the war-ravaged country represents a transcendental human feat. Việt Nam's impressive socioeconomic achievements and its extraordinary capacity to unite the entire nation to achieve increasingly challenging objectives are highly recognised.

The results of the renewal process, which have transformed the country's economic structure in just four decades and generated greater progress and well-being for its people, are admirable. In 1995, at the end of his second visit to Việt Nam, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro congratulated the Vietnamese people "for their lack of dogma, their audacity, and their courage." These virtues have marked the path of these past eight decades. By preserving national sovereignty and dedicating itself to building a nation at peace, Việt Nam has left a powerful message to all humanity.

Cuba is proud to have in Việt Nam a sister nation, a faithful friend, and a close companion with whom we share a historic relationship forged in the struggles against colonialism, imperialism, and for socialist construction. The work and thought of Uncle Hồ and the epic of this people live on in new generations of Cubans. Fidel and Cuba's willingness to give even its blood for Việt Nam still resonates in every corner of this nation. The moving displays of love that have emerged in the current campaign of support for Cuba, sponsored by the Việt Nam Red Cross and the Fatherland Front, would not be possible without our exemplary shared history. A wise Vietnamese proverb has risen in moral stature to the rank of a principle of international solidarity: "When drinking water, do not forget the source."

In 2025, the Việt Nam–Cuba Year of Friendship, in which we commemorate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, we have seen progress toward a new stage of comprehensive, effective, substantive, and sustainable collaboration. In addition to excellent inter-party relations, systematic political, social, and cultural exchanges, and ties between localities, new economic, trade, investment, and cooperation projects in the agri-food, biotechnology, and energy sectors have been added. Harvesting high-yield Vietnamese rice on Cuban lands with new management models and producing innovative Cuban biopharmaceutical products in Việt Nam offer an auspicious future.

Eight decades after President Hồ Chí Minh's immortal voice proclaimed independence in Ba Đình Square, the Party, State, Government, and people of Việt Nam receive our fraternal embrace and the full conviction that in the era of nation's rise, Việt Nam will once again triumph.VNS