Havana, September 2 (RHC) -- Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz on Saturday sent greetings to the people of Vietnam on the occasion of its National Day and the 78th anniversary of that Asian country's independence.

Cuba and Vietnam are united by historic ties of brotherhood, forged by our leaders Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh, said the Cuban premier on X, formerly Twitter.

On December 2, 1960 Cuba became the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam and since then they have maintained close ties of cooperation and political dialogue in different spheres.

The Asian nation commemorates every September 2 its Vietnam National Day, a day that marks the declaration of independence from France in 1945.

After the end of World War II, following the August Revolution, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which at the time was known as North Vietnam and it was not until 1976 that the two halves were united into a single country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.