Communist Review - The establishment of the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Cuba and the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam 60 years ago, on December 2, 1960 opened a new page in the history of friendship between the two nations located in the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the globe. Over the past 60 years, the special friendship between Viet Nam and Cuba deserves to be a symbol of faithful and pure proletarian internationalism in the struggle for national liberation and socialism construction.

With revolutionary consciousness that the Vietnamese people's resistance war against the US was to protect peace, independence and happiness for the countries of Asia - Africa - Latin America, including Cuba, the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban people gave Viet Nam timely and effective support and assistance during the resistance years. In December 1961, Cuba was the first country to recognize the National Liberation Front of South Viet Nam. In July 1962, the Front's representative mission began to operate permanently in Cuba, and in July 1965, the mission was upgraded to function as an embassy. In September 1963, the Cuban Committee for Solidarity with South Viet Nam was established (since 1965, it was renamed the Cuban Committee for Solidarity with Viet Nam). The Committee initiated, mobilized, organized and gathered forces of all classes of Cuban people to participate in activities to share the fire of fighting with Vietnamese people. The year 1967 was named by Cuba as the "Vietnamese Heroic Year" because this year was right at the critical point of the Vietnamese people's fierce resistance against the US. Over the past more than 60 years since the successful Cuban revolution in 1959, the Cuban State has only once used the name of another country to name a year in its own country.

In July 1967, Cuba was the first country to set up an embassy in the liberated South Viet Nam, providing a valuable source of encouragement for the soldiers of the Liberation Army of South Viet Nam. When the seaports in North Viet Nam were blocked by thousands of US mines and the Vietnamese sky was attacked by US aircrafts day and night, President Fidel Castro affirmed the unconditional and absolute solidarity, support and trust of nearly 11 million Cubans for Viet Nam. The children of Cuban people have come to Viet Nam’s estuaries and creeks to remove torpedoes and mines. These courageous and carefree actions were similar to what they have contributed to the legendary Ho Chi Minh trail of Viet Nam. In September 1973, despite the fire and smoke of the battlefield, leader Fidel Castro arrived in Quang Tri, becoming the first and only foreign head of state to visit the liberated area of ​​South Viet Nam then. On the liberation day of South Viet Nam on April 30, 1975, the whole country of Cuba was filled with national flags and even tears of joy over the great victory of a nation to which Cuba was "ready to donate its blood".

From 1975 onwards, Viet Nam and Cuba stood side by side in the cause of building socialism and defending the Fatherland. Cuban President Fidel Castro once again expressed the loyalty of Cuban people: “If in the past we were willing to give our blood, today we are ready to sweat to help Viet Nam rebuild the country”. Despite various difficulties and deprivations, Cuba has presented Viet Nam 5 socio-economic works of great value: Thang Loi Hotel, Ba Vi Breeding Farm, Son Tay - Xuan Mai Highway, Viet Nam - Cuba Hospital, Luong My Chicken Factory. In the context of hostile forces looking for all sorts of tricks to encircle, isolate and destroy Viet Nam in the international arena, Cuba has always supported Viet Nam. At the end of 1982, the Viet Nam - Cuba Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed in Havana (Cuba) defining the legal framework for the relationship between the two countries. President Fidel Castro commented: “Like small rivers from different sources passing through rapids and being in solitude for a long time, the two peoples of Cuba and Viet Nam have overcome challenges before joining the great and mighty river of the socialist revolution”.

The Parties, States and peoples of Viet Nam and Cuba have joined together in a new fight to protect, maintain, consolidate and develop socialism since the late 80s and early 90s of the twentieth century. Considering solidarity, support and cooperation with Cuba as a principle, an imperative of the heart, the Vietnamese Party, State and people have mobilized valuable economic resources to help Cuban people overcome material deprivations in numerous difficult times. The movements of twenty thousand tons of rice, five million packs of paper and pens, and five thousand sets of clothes, etc. for Cuban people have been successfully completed. Leaders of the two Parties and States soon identified a new framework for the bilateral relationship, both strengthening the traditional solidarity and friendship and improving the effectiveness of cooperation programs. In September 1995, the two countries signed an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. In April 1996, the two countries signed a Trade Agreement and other forms of economic cooperation.

The Viet Nam-Cuba cooperation relationship is expanded in various fields, such as agriculture, industry, construction, investment, culture, education, science- technology. Viet Nam transfers techniques and seeds to help Cuba cultivate wet rice on a small scale, raise mussels for pearls, develop ceramic technology, maintain rice production and export goods to the Cuban market, etc. Cuba continues to cooperate and assist Viet Nam in sugar cane technology; processing by-products from sugar cane; raising crocodiles, raising and using bait to kill sugarcane pests; transferring disease resistance genes to rice, cabbages, sweet potatoes; consulting and supervising construction works, sports complexes, building Ho Chi Minh trail; providing technical support for the development of technology building single-operator housing in the floodplains of the Mekong Delta; supporting a number of important medical programs...

The historic visit of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPV Nguyen Phu Trong to Cuba in March 2018 and the historic visit of the President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Migen Diaz Canel to Viet Nam in November 2018 made an important contribution to promoting the relationship between Viet Nam and Cuba to more trust, cohesion and effectiveness. The two countries continue to innovate their cooperation methods in the direction of improving the practicality and efficiency, focusing on promoting cooperation in fields of mutual strengths and interests, such as trade, investment, and agriculture, biotechnology, healthcare, construction, industry, transportation, information and communication, finance, banking, culture, sports, education - training and science - technology.

In April 2018, Viet Nam announced debt relief for Cuba. Viet Nam is currently Cuba's second largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific and Oceania regions. The total two-way trade turnover between Viet Nam and Cuba in 2018 reached nearly 400 million USD. During the official visit to Viet Nam by President of the Cuban State Council Migel Diad Canel in November 2018, the two sides signed a variety of documents and agreements on cooperation and development, including the New Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and Cuba, creating a legal basis for the economic and trade relations between the two countries to reach the level of the inherent special political relationship, which will help increase the two-way trade turnover between the two countries to 500 million USD in the coming years.

Vietnamese enterprises having commercial cooperation activities with Cuban partners are: Defense Economic Technical Industry Corporation (GAET), Northern Food Corporation, Viglacera Company, Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Manufacturing and Trading Joint Stock Company (AMV), etc. Viet Nam’s main export items to Cuba include: rice, electrical appliances, electronics, clothes, foot-wears, cosmetics, building materials, industrial materials, household appliances, stationery, food, etc. Viet Nam’s imported goods include: drugs, vaccines, biological drugs. Viet Nam always responds to the partner’s request for import contracts with 360 days deferred payment, especially 540 days deferred payment for rice contracts.

Cuba has also actively suggested that Vietnamese enterprises should invest in potential fields, such as industry, tourism, biotechnology, and new fields, for instance vaccine production and pharmaceuticals, etc. In the process of promoting investment in the Special Development Zone of Marie (ZEDM), Cuba has chosen Viet Nam as the first partner to be licensed to invest 100% of foreign capital to develop the industrial zone started in November 2018. In 2014, Cuba promulgated a new Investment Law, aiming at attracting foreign investment as a major source of economic development. Areas of Cuba’s interest to attract investment include: energy, oil and gas exploration and production, industry, food production, sugar and sugar-related products production, tourism, biotechnology, information technology, telecommunications in the Special Development Zone of Marie as well as in other localities of Cuba.

In the field of agriculture, there have been a large number of cooperation projects between the two countries, such as the Viet Nam - Cuba cooperation project to develop rice production in Cuba for the period 2010 - 2015; the Project to support the plan of fishery development for Cuba, phase one (2012 - 2014); the Project to support the Cuban aquaculture industry, phase two (2014 - 2017); the Project to support Cuba to develop seed crops in the second phase (2014 - 2017). The above cooperation projects have all ended and achieved positive results, actively supporting Cuba in increasing food production, improving technical level and management capacity for the staff, creating more jobs, significantly reducing the amount of foreign currency imported to serve Cuba’s economic development. Based on that, the two countries continued to implement numerous new projects, such as: The project to develop coffee trees in Cuba and Viet Nam in the 2016-2020 period, this project is implemented under the model of mutual assistance, each party contributes 3 million USD, and it has been implemented since March 2016 and the two sides are implementing according to the proposed plan; the project on rice production development in Cuba in the period of 2019 - 2023 with a total capital of about 40 million USD (Viet Nam supports 20 million USD, Cuba provides 20 million USD of reciprocal capital), this project officially started in May 2019, and 22 Vietnamese experts were sent to Cuba to implement the plan.

In the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, the Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health of Viet Nam and the Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health of Cuba signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in September 2019, accordingly, the two sides would establish a technical cooperation group between the drug regulatory agencies of the two countries to promote technology transfer of medicinal and biological products in which the two sides have strengths, as well as support the registration, re-registration and inspection of pharmaceutical products imported and exported between the two countries. In addition, the two sides are also researching cooperatively to develop the production of vaccines and biological products in Viet Nam, such as vaccines for the treatment of terminal lung cancer; meningococcal vaccine; recombinant hepatitis B vaccine; vaccines against meningococcus of types A, C, W135, etc.

The Viet Nam - Cuba defense relations in recent years continue to be a pillar field and a bright spot in cooperation between the two countries. The two sides have closely coordinated, practically and effectively implemented cooperation contents on the basis of documents and agreements signed under the Cooperation Plan for the period 2017 - 2019; high-level exchanges continue to be enhanced, contributing to promoting and bringing bilateral defense cooperation into reality and effectiveness. In September 2019, the two sides held the third Dialogue on Viet Nam – Cuba defense policy, creating a foundation for building a Defense Cooperation Plan for the period of 2020 - 2022 and orientation for developing bilateral defense relations, contributing to consolidating and developing the fine traditional friendship between the two countries.

In addition, Viet Nam is also willing to cooperate with Cuba in such fields as telecommunications and communications in which Viet Nam has mastered technology; requesting the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces to create conditions for Viet Nam's Military Industry and Telecommunications Group (Viettel) to soon participate in investment and development of telecommunications infrastructure and other potential fields in Cuba in the coming time; at the same time, receiving Cuban students and experts to Viet Nam for training in ciphers, such as cryptography, defense industry, and electronic warfare. Viet Nam also sends students to Cuba to study in such fields of strengths as military medicine, military engineering, etc.

With mutual trust and fine tradition, the CPV and the Communist Party of Cuba organized four theoretical seminars (in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2018) to exchange and discuss practical issues and experiences in socio-economic development, political-ideological work, and Party building work, etc. to draw experiences from Viet Nam's Doi Moi and the process of updating Cuba's socio-economic model. On the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the implementation of President Ho Chi Minh's Will (1969 - 2019) and towards the 60^th anniversary of Viet Nam - Cuba relations (1960 - 2020), leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba and leaders of the CPV held a scientific conference "Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro: Revolutionary Visions" on September 17 and 18, 2019 at Nico Lopez Senior Party School, Havana, Cuba. The conference affirmed the value and practical significance of the thought and career of President Ho Chi Minh and Leader Fidel Castro. In Latin America, President Ho Chi Minh's name has become a vital inspiration for countless revolutionary causes over the past decades. The thought of President Ho Chi Minh and Leader Fidel Castro always accompanies the people of the two countries on their development steps, enlightening the two peoples with a firm belief and helping Viet Nam - Cuba find the right solutions to many fundamental and urgent problems at present.

The consolidation and development of the Viet Nam - Cuba relationship have been one of the factors contributing to the protection, maintenance and development of socialism in the two countries over the years. The Doi Moi in Viet Nam and the process of updating the socio-economic model in Cuba have created a premise, interacted and complemented each other on both theoretical and practical levels. The achievements of the faithful and pure relationship between Viet Nam and Cuba are a great source of strength contributing to the victories in Viet Nam's revolutionary cause, and at the same time, helping Cuba gradually overcome the difficulties in critical periods, being steadfast and creative in building and defending the country.

The cause of the struggle for national liberation of the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries from the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century up to now has made the relationship between the two nations more cohesive. The relationship between Viet Nam and Cuba has been characterized by solidarity, loyalty, and affection, becoming an invaluable asset of the two peoples. In the short term, the cause of Doi Moi, socialist reform and construction still has to overcome difficulties and challenges, but the communists and peoples of Viet Nam - Cuba still keep moving forward with the strength of the August Revolution in 1945, the victory of Moncada (July 1953), the victory of Dien Bien Phu (May 1954), the victory of Hiron (April 1961), the great victory in the spring of 1975 and the tradition of 60 years of faithful and pure friendship and cooperation.

For Vietnamese people, the word “Cuba” is synonymous with the symbol of heroism, bravery, unyielding will, strong belief in the ideals of national independence and socialism. The Viet Nam – Cuba relationship is a fraternal comradeship which is close, sincere and pure. Experiencing a long and arduous process of revolutionary struggle in each country, which has been tested and trained for more than half a century, the relationship between the two countries has been developing well, becoming symbol of the times. Viet Nam -Cuba relations will "become more and more developed, forever loyal to each other, help each other, closely cooperate together to struggle for peace, national independence, democracy and socialism", as affirmed by General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Nguyen Phu Trong during his visit to Cuba in March 2018.

This article was published in the Communist Review, No. 955 (December 2020)