Nguyen Phu Trong winds up Friday a three-day visit to Cuba in which he ratified his country’s willingness to continue building up relations

Vietnam’s Communist Party (CPV) General Secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, winds up a three-day visit to Cuba in which the two sides ratified their willingness to continue building up their relations and signed key economic agreements.

On Thursday, Trong met President Raul Castro and conferred him the Golden Star Order, Vietnam’s highest award, and presided over the signing of nine agreements on governmental and business cooperation.

The accords envision the strengthening of ties between the Cuban Communist Party and the CPV, the cancellation of Cuba’s debt with Vietnam and a Treaty of Mutual Legal Assistance.

Memoranda of Understanding on technical and scientific cooperation, protection of the environment, mutual response to climate change and cooperation on construction were also signed.

Another agreement covers cooperation on rice production on the island for the 2018-2022 period and the conclusion of trade negotiations.

The ninth agreement signed has to do with cooperation between Prensa Latina news agency and the Vietnamese press agency, VNA.

Following a Business Forum, Vietnamese companies struck new deals with Cuba on tourism and the fostering of an industrial park in the west of the island with a view to promote direct foreign investments.

Vietnam’s Minister of Trade and Industry Tran Tuan Anh and the Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca headed the forum and the signing ceremony.

After being awarded with Golden Star Order, President Raul Castro said: ‘The deep friendship between Cuba and Vietnam has stood the test of time. We have built a solid relation forged along the hard years of the struggle for the liberation of Vietnam.’