The Hanoi People’s Committee on April 28 hosted a celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Liberation of Southern Vietnam and national reunification for Vietnam ’s international friends.

Present at the gathering were 40 international friends hailing from 20 countries, which provided assistance to the Vietnamese people in the past struggle for national reunification. They included Helen Luc, President of the France-Vietnam Friendship Association and Ryszard Fijalkoski, Head of the Polish delegation to the International Commission of Control and Supervision, which was in charge of carrying out the Paris Peace Accords in Vietnam .

Ngo Thi Thanh Hang, Vice Chairwoman of the municipal People’s Committee said, the Vietnamese people are grateful for support and precious assistance international friends and peace lovers around the world offered for their cause of national liberation.

“We are very delight that international friends are also standing side by side with us in the current course of integration and development,” Hang said.

On behalf of the participants, Tomiichi Murayama, former Japanese Prime Minister and Chairman of the Japan-Vietnam Peace and Friendship Council, spoke highly of the Vietnamese people’s endeavours and the country’s immense development recorded over the past time.

He expressed hope that the relationship between Vietnam and Japan and other countries will be strengthened and further expanded to many domains.

The former Japanese PM recalled how happy he felt when hearing the news on the liberation of southern Vietnam on April 30, 1975.

Earlier, international friends visited Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), Vietnam’s first university, which houses 82 doctor laureate steles inscribed with 2,313 doctors who passed the court examinations between 1442 and 1779 (some material recorded the period between 1484 and 1514) under the Early Le, Mac and Late Le dynasties. The site has just been recognised by UNESCO as a World Documentary Heritage./.