A ceremony to mark 50 years since the establishment of the Cuban Committee of Solidarity with South Vietnam has been held in the Cuban capital Havana.

The ceremony, jointly organised by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and the Vietnamese Embassy in Cuba , was attended by President of the Cuba-Vietnam Friendship Association Yolanda Ferrer, ICAP President Kenia Serrano and Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Vu Chi Cong.

The committee was set up on September 25, 1963 following then President Fidel Castro’s immortal words “For Vietnam, we are ready to devote our blood.”

Addressing the event on September 20, Yolanda Ferrer, one of the committee’s initiators, emphasised that the founding of the committee has helped nurture the time-honoured relationship between the two nations over the last five decades.

She said Cuba always remembers Vietnam ’s triumph in the fight for national independence and said its achievements in its current development offers huge encouragement to the Cuban people.

Ambassador Cong acknowledged the committee’s contributions to Vietnam ’s victory in the fight for liberation, declaring that younger generations should uphold the values of solidarity in the decades ahead.-VNA