Cuba celebrates 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s visit to Vietnam

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuban Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel on September 12 chaired a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro's first visit to Vietnam and the liberated zone in Southern Vietnam (September 1973 - 2023).

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuban Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel on September 12 chaired a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro's first visit to Vietnam and the liberated zone in Southern Vietnam (September 1973 - 2023).

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Le Thanh Tung said that President Fidel Castro's visit to Vietnam in 1973 was an important milestone in the bilateral relations. President Fidel Castro became the first and only foreign head of state to visit the newly-liberated region and hold aloft the flag of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.

Tung emphasised that leader Fidel Castro's visit and gesture helped encourage revolutionary forces and spread the solidarity movement with Vietnam around the world. He expressed his belief that Cuba will overcome all difficulties and obstacles and win victories in the cause of socialist construction.

For his part, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Politburo member and permanent member of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee's Secretariat, highlighted the significance of Fidel Castro’s visit to Vietnam 50 years ago.

In all his speeches as well as conversations with officers, soldiers, and people of Vietnam throughout the journey, the leader of the Cuban revolution emphasised Vietnam's extraordinary role in the revolutionary and national liberation movements around the world, Morales Ojeda said.

President Fidel Castro's visit not only contributed to building the traditional fraternal relationship and solidarity between the two countries but also highlighted the determination of both peoples to build socialism in a way that is suitable to the characteristics of each country, the official stressed.

Morales Ojeda was moved at the faithful solidarity that the Vietnamese people have reserved for Cuba, especially in the most difficult times. Cuba deeply acknowledges Vietnam's sincere and wholehearted support in the context that this Caribbean island nation is still facing an embargo, he added.

Vietnam is Cuba’s second-largest Asian trading partner and the largest Asian investor in Cuba. Economic and trade relations have contributed to strengthening their traditional relationship.