President of Vietnam arrives in Cuba

Havana, Sep 18 (pl/rhc/acn).-The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, arrived Saturday in Cuba as part of an official visit that will last until Monday.

At Havana's José Martí International Airport, the president was received by Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdés.

The visiting head of state will hold official talks with Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of Cuba, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and other senior leaders.

His visit will contribute to the strengthening and expansion of the close ties of friendship and cooperation between the two nations.

After his arrival in the largest of the Antilles on Saturday morning, the President is expected to meet with executives of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association at the National Hotel, in Havana.

The agenda for the coming days includes the laying of a wreath at the monolith that holds the ashes of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro (in Santiago de Cuba), who was the architect of the historic relations of brotherhood and solidarity between Cuba and the land of Ho Chi Minh.

Vietnam is Cuba's second largest trading partner in Asia and Oceania, as well as the main investor in the area and the largest supplier of rice.

Likewise, the stay of the president of that Asian nation in the Caribbean island will also lead to exchanges on business opportunities in the Mariel Development Trade Zone and a tour of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, which sells its products in more than 35 countries and is the creator of the anti-COVID-19 Abdala vaccine, the first of its kind in Latin America and the Caribbean.