General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee and President Tô Lâm, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend and deliver remarks online from the Russian venue. VNA/VNS Photo

MOSCOW – General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee and President Tô Lâm, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on September 9 attended an online opening ceremony of a laboratory for the prevention of infectious diseases at Hanoi-based Joint Việt Nam - Russia Tropical Science and Technology Research Centre, as part of his state visit to Russia.

Opening the ceremony, President Putin spoke of his highly productive talks with General Secretary and President Lâm earlier in the day. He stressed that the laboratory’s opening during the visit is symbolic of the bilateral relations, serving as a vivid testament to the multifaceted cooperation between Russia and Việt Nam and demonstrating the effective development of the two countries’ Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

According to the Russian leader, the laboratory in Hanoi is the most modern and largest facility of its kind in Việt Nam in the field of infectious disease prevention and biosafety. It will operate using Russian technologies and methodologies, with a focus on protecting the lives and health of people in Việt Nam and throughout Southeast Asia.

He expressed his confidence that the laboratory would become an important component of the tropical centre, seamlessly integrating into its operations and enhancing its scientific potential.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee and President Tô Lâm (l) and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend and deliver remarks online from the Russian venue. VNA/VNS photo

General Secretary and President Lâm stressed that, as the facility is put into use amid complex developments in infectious diseases around the world, its greatest value lies in its capacity to detect and provide early warnings, as well as scientific evidence for policymaking aimed at preventing and combating them.

Affirming that the facility is a demonstration of the effectiveness of scientific and technological cooperation in preventive medicine and public health protection, the Vietnamese leader called for the laboratory to be optimised and gradually developed into a centre for research into and surveillance of pathogens, with the capacity to forecast, issue warnings about and respond rapidly to disease threats.

From the Hanoi opening ceremony, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyễn Trường Thắng, Deputy Minister of National Defence and Co-Chair of the intergovernmental coordination committee for the centre, expressed his delight, noting that the centre is one of the vivid and enduring symbols of bilateral sci-tech cooperation, a special model of joint work and an effective bridge connecting agencies, organisations and scientific communities of Việt Nam and Russia. VNA/VNS