Hanoi - Cuba recognized with the Order of Solidarity the enormous and sustained efforts of the President of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Kim , in favor of friendship and cooperation. In a solemn ceremony held in this capital, the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Fernando Gonzalez, bestowed the award to whom for almost a decade presided over the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association.

I am proud to be the bearer of such an important distinction, granted by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba to ICAP proposals, Gonzalez said.

Until shortly after assuming the leadership of the Vietnamese parliament, Kim Ngam presided over the friendship association between the two countries and when he ceded that post in May last year, he promised to continue contributing to bilateral relations, efforts that Cuba now fully recognized.

There has never been a pause in her work of solidarity with the Cuban people, her tireless labor has greatly contributed to strengthening the links of brotherhood between both parties, governments and peoples, assured the hero of the Republic of Cuba.

We will never forget that it was our friend Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan -he highlighted- who headed the Vietnamese delegation that participated in the funeral honors of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz.

Visibly moved, Kim Ngam renewed her brotherhood vows with Cuba and said she received with 'pride and honor' the Order of Solidarity.

She also wished successes to the process of updating the economic model carried out by the Cuban government and, as in her time as president of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association, she entrusted the organization with a superior work in favor of relations between the respective communist parties, states and peoples.

This was one of the activities that the president of ICAP fulfilled in the third of his six days of visiting the Indochinese nation.

Before, Gonzalez placed floral offerings to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and a bust of Jose Marti in a central Hanoi park, and attended the inauguration of the 28th Vietnam Trade Fair, to which Cuba, the only Latin American country present, concurs with 27 companies, its largest representation at all times.

He also participated in a meeting with the management of the Vietnamese News Agency and the members of the affiliate of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association in that media outlet.

In all these activities, the speakers expressed their joy at the excellent moment in which bilateral relations go by and stressed that they received a special boost during the recent visit to the island of the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong.