Paris (VNA) – As part of his official visit to France, Party General Secretary and State President To Lam met with Nguyen Hai Nam, Chairman of the France-Vietnam Friendship Association (AAFV) in Paris on October 7.
At the meeting, Nam informed the Vietnamese leader on the association's recent support activities toward Vietnam, including assistance for Agent Orange victims, cooperation in science, technology, and health care, and aid for residents affected by Typhoon Yagi.
The chairman expressed his wish to expand the support to multiple provinces in Vietnam and strengthen ties with the Vietnam-France Friendship Association.
He suggested that Vietnam’s competent agencies continue to facilitate the association’s projects benefiting the Vietnamese people as well as its key role in promoting friendship, solidarity, and cooperation between the two nations.
In response, the Party General Secretary and President noted that his visit to France is the first at the head-of-state level in 22 years, underlining Vietnam’s willingness to deepen the strategic partnership, traditional friendship, and multifaceted cooperation with France.
Expressing his pleasure at the significant strides made in the bilateral relations over the past five decades since the two countries' diplomatic relations were established and 10 years of strategic partnership, he highlighted the increasing political trust thanks to high-level delegation exchanges and meetings, and strong expansion in their security, defence, education, science-technology, and locality-to-locality cooperation.
Appreciating the AAFV’s contributions to Vietnam and recognising its active role in fostering the bilateral relations, Lam affirmed that the Vietnamese Government always supports and creates favourable conditions for the association’s operations in Vietnam.
He called on the AAFV to continue working closely with the Vietnam-France Friendship Association and other patriotic groups such as the Vietnamese Association in France to bolster solidarity and promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries./.
Top leader starts official visit to France
Party General Secretary and State President To Lam and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam started an official visit to France from October 7 morning (local time) at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.