Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính meets with Cuban Ambassador Orlando Nicolás Hernández Guillén on Thursday in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính held a reception for Cuban Ambassador Orlando Nicolás Hernández Guillén in Hà Nội on Thursday, during which the host underlined Việt Nam’s great respect for its close-knit friendship with Cuba.

In recent years, Vietnamese and Cuban ministries and sectors have joined hands together to overcome difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, while reinforcing and developing cooperation in all fields, noted the PM.

The two sides recalled the fruitful outcomes of telephone talks between the Communist Party of Việt Nam’s General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez on May 5 and July 27, as well as talks between PM Chinh and his Cuban counterpart Manuel Marrero Cruz on July 1.

On the basis of high-level agreements between the two countries, PM Chính asked Ambassador Orlando Nicolás Hernández Guillén to coordinate with ministries, sectors and agencies of both sides to effectively implement measures to strengthen the traditional solidarity and friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

He underlined the significance of bilateral cooperation and sharing experiences in performing clinical trials, licencing and transferring of Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccine production technology to Việt Nam following agreements reached in recent talks between the Vietnamese and Cuban PMs.

PM Chính also announced that Việt Nam will present Cuba with 12,000 tonnes of rice in the hope of easing the difficulties facing the Cuban people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that Việt Nam will ship the rice to Cuba as soon as possible, expressing his hope that the two sides will continue to strengthen cooperation to ensure the food security of Cuba.

For his part, Ambassador Orlando Nicolás Hernández Guillén thanked the Party, State and people of Vietnam for the support, which reflects the special, traditional friendship between the two countries.

He pledged to work hard to make more contributions to the reinforcement of the special traditional friendship, fraternal solidarity and comprehensive cooperation as well as mutual trust between the two Parties, States, Governments and peoples, especially in hard times.

He vowed to coordinate closely with relevant agencies of both sides to promote bilateral cooperation in COVID-19 vaccine production in Việt Nam.

Following the reception, PM Chính handed over a token representing the gift of 10,000 tonnes of rice from the Party, State and people of Việt Nam to Cuba, and leaders of the Hà Nội Party Committee symbolically presented 2,000 tonnes of rice from Hà Nội to Cuba’s capital city Havana to the Cuban Ambassador. — VNS