Vietnam holds National Day banquet at UN headquarters

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung speaks at the National Day banquet held at the UN headquarters in New York. (Source: VNA)

Vietnam’s permanent delegation at the United Nations (UN) held a grand banquet at the UN headquarters in New York on September 1 (local time) to celebrate the country’s 70th anniversary of the August Revolutionary and National Day (September 2).

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung presided over the event, held for the first time at the UN headquarters and hosting many foreign diplomats and international friends.

Among high-profile guests were President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Saber Chowdhury ; President of the UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft, ; and UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson,

Speaking at the event, NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung emphasised that 2015 is a special year for the UN and Vietnam, as both are celebrating the 70th anniversary of their establishment.

Vietnamese people are continually grateful for the support and assistance from friends around the world, the UN and the IPU in the country’s liberation and re-unification cause as well as in the current national construction and defence.

With regards to the Vietnam-US relationship, Chairman Hung said Vietnam and the US have made great efforts over the past 40 years to overcome differences and that the relationship is better now than ever before.

According to him, the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1995 and the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement in 2013 opened a new stage of development in Vietnam-US ties on the principle of looking forward to a better future.

Addressing the event, IPU President Saber Chowdhury warmly congratulated the Vietnamese NA and people on the grand day and appreciated the success of the 132nd IPU Assembly in Hanoi in March with the Hanoi Statement on ‘Goals of Sustainable Development: Turning Words into Actions.’

The success of the IPU Assembly in Vietnam positively contributed to the on-going 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament and the UN Summit at the end of September, he said.

Chowdhury congratulated Vietnam on its social-economic achievements and expressed his belief that Vietnam and its people would continue to see achievements.-VNA