VNA Director General Vu Viet Trang (fourth, right) and PL President Luis Enrique Gonzalez Acosta exchange cooperation agreement documents. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —Director General of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Vũ Việt Trang on October 30 had a working session in Hà Nội with President of Cuban news agency Prensa Latina (PL) Luis Enrique Gonzalez Acosta.

Welcoming the PL leader, Trang briefed the guest on the situation of the VNA and its development orientations towards a multimedia news agency playing a key role in Việt Nam’s press system.

Showing delight at the cooperation outcomes between the two news agencies over the past four decades, the VNA leader affirmed that the two sides have enjoyed a close partnership on the foundation of the Việt Nam-Cuba solidarity and friendship established by President Hồ Chí Minh and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In the current period, they should continue to strengthen cooperation and implement new cooperation projects, she said.

For his part, the PL leader thanked the VNA for its support in all fields since the two news agencies set up their partnership in 1966, and pledged to continue backing the Vietnamese news agency's representative office in Cuba and assist its affiliate Vietnam Pictorial in enhancing the quality of the Spanish version.

The two sides reviewed their cooperation programmes since 2020 in various fields, agreed on the significance of their cooperation, and reaffirmed that the partnership has contributed to strengthening the mutual understanding and traditional friendship between the two countries.

Leaders of the two news agencies concurred to resume annual high-level exchanges starting in 2023 after two years of interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trang invited the PL leader to visit Việt Nam on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s historic visit to Việt Nam (September 1973-2023).

The two sides highly valued bilateral cooperation in printing and circulating the Vietnam Pictorial in the Latin American region over the years, and agreed to sign a new cooperation deal in the field next year.

The VNA hailed contributions by PL experts in enhancing the quality of foreign service information in Spanish of the VNA as well as training VNA sub-editors. Leaders of the two sides agreed to extend the working term of PL experts in Viet Nam to two years instead of one year.

They will work together to organise a photo exhibition in Việt Nam to mark the 50th anniversary of Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s visit to Việt Nam, with the PL sending photos to the VNA for display.

The VNA opened its representative office in Havana in 1966, the first in the Latin American region.

Since then, the VNA and the PL have signed many cooperation agreements, with the latest in 2018. The two sides have provided each other with news in English, French and Spanish, and the PL has sent its experts to the VNA every year to support the latter to produce Spanish news and train VNA sub-editors as well as printing and circulating the Spanish-version of the Vietnam Pictorial. They have supported each other’s correspondents, with the VNA providing parts of operation costs for the PL office in Hà Nội. In 2018, the VNA presented the PL with an industrial printer.

The partnership between the VNA and the PL is considered a model of successful international cooperation of the VNA in both wartime and current period. — VNS