Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue (left) held online talks with President the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba Esteban Lazo Hernández on March 25. (Photo: VNA)

The two leaders informed each other about their respective country’s recent situation, and discussed directions and measures to further strengthen the fraternal friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the Parties, National Assemblies and people of Viet Nam and Cuba.

Hue stressed that Cuba always holds a very important position in the heart of each Vietnamese person and that Viet Nam supports the request for ending embargo policies against Cuba.

Hernandez affirmed that Cuba gives the top priority to cooperative relations with Viet Nam and wants to enhance economic, trade and investment ties as well as exchanging experience in parliamentary activities with the Southeast Asian country.

Cuba highly evaluated Viet Nam’s efforts in implementing the dual goal of combating COVID-19 and boosting economic development, he said, adding that Cuba desires to cooperate with Viet Nam in the fight against the pandemic based on its current capacity.

Both leaders asserted that despite their geographical distance, Viet Nam and Cuba have been and will be backing each other in the process of national construction and defence. The Viet Nam-Cuba special fraternal friendship and solidarity are a valuable asset that the two Parties, States and people need to preserve, nurture, develop and pass to future generations, they stressed.

They held that the bilateral relationship has continued to witness positive development steps in the recent past despite adverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The two nations have maintained high-level phone talks and meetings and cooperation mechanisms in the online form, and built mechanisms to remove difficulties in economic-trade-investment ties. Viet Nam and Cuba have assisted each other in coping with the pandemic, showing their special sentiments.

Hue affirmed that Viet Nam has attached great importance to and will continue working closely with Cuba to deploy high-level commitments and contents of bilateral cooperation, including cooperation in health care, pharmaceuticals and COVID-19 prevention and control, reached by the inter-government committees.

The two leaders expressed their wish to bring economic-trade-investment ties to be on par with the traditional friendship between Viet Nam and Cuba.

They agreed to continue increasing the exchange of delegations at all levels in suitable forms; and organising seminars, talks and exchange of experts to share experience in renewal, especially in law-making, supervision, building and perfecting the rule-governed socialist State and deciding important issues of each country.

The top legislators pledged to create more favourable conditions in terms of mechanism and policy for Vietnamese businesses investing in Cuba, and continue promoting economic and trade relations as well as cooperation in the fields where both nations have advantages and potential such as agriculture, fishery, biotechnology and tourism.

On this occasion, Hue informed that the Vietnamese NA will soon donate informatic equipment to help its Cuban counterpart improve the operational efficiency.

Hue invited Hernandez to pay an official visit to Viet Nam, and the Cuban leader also extended his invitation to the Vietnamese NA Chairman to visit Cuba at an appropriate time.