Cuba and Vietnam deepen relations
The step-by-step construction of a more just international order
The socialist republics of Cuba and Vietnam recently commemorated their historic relation of six decades. The two nations continue joint theoretical reflection on their experiences in the construction of socialism, and they are deepening economic ties. Cuba and Vietnam are appreciated throughout the world, especially the Third World, for their heroic resistance to Western colonialism and imperialism, and each has a special place in the collective memory and consciousness of the other.
President of the National Assembly of Vietnam visits Cuba
Vuong Dinh Hue, President of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, arrived in Cuba on April 23, in response to an invitation by his Cuban counterpart, Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Cuba. Vuong was accompanied by a large delegation, which included members of parliament, ministers of the executive branch, and other distinguished leaders. Vuong and the members of the delegation met with Cuban authorities and visited places of economic importance and historical significance.
Vuong met with Raúl Castro, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz. Both sides stressed the affectionate and historic relations between Vietnam and Cuba of more than six decades, forged by Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh. They emphasized the common will to continue strengthening bilateral cooperation in various areas.
The visit of the Vietnamese delegation included an interchange between the Women’s Union of Vietnam and the Federation of Cuban Women, in which papers were presented that pointed out the role of women in different spheres of the society as well as the achievement of women in attaining equity. They emphasized the equality of rights for women in the two nations, in economic, political, cultural, labor, and family spheres. They also pointed out the ample relations of cooperation between the two organizations. Participants in the interchange from the Vietnamese delegation included Tran Quang Phuong, Vice-President of the National Assembly of Vietnam; Nguyen Thi Hoang Van, Vice-President of the Commission of Foreign Relations of the Communist Party of Vietnam; and Do Thi Thu Thao, Vice-President of the Women’s Union of Vietnam.
Vuong´s official visit coincided with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Cuban Committee of Solidarity with South Vietnam and the 50th anniversary of the visit of Fidel to Vietnam, during which he declared, “No liberation movement, no people that has struggled for its independence, has had to carry out a struggle as long and heroic as the people of Vietnam.”
The visit culminated at Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, where the Vietnamese delegation paid tribute to the National Hero José Martí; the Father of the Country, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes; and the Mother of the Country, Mariana Grajales. At the cemetery, Vuong Dinh Hue placed a flower offering at the rock monument that conserves the ashes of Fidel.
Delegation of the Communist Party of Cuba in the land of Ho Chi Minh
On April 22, 2023, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Cuba, initiated a tour of three socialist countries of Asia, which included interchanges with the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the Lao Revolutionary People’s Party. The party authorities reflected on their experiences with respect to the process of constructing socialism. The high-level political dialogue seeks to contribute to the advancement of economic, commercial, and financial relations of cooperation among the sister nations.
The communist parties of China, Vietnam, and Cuba and the Lao Revolutionary People’s Party are vanguard political parties that recruit the most prepared and committed revolutionary citizens. Their role is to educate and elevate the political consciousness of the people, and to make recommendation to the people’s assemblies that elect government officials and enact legislation. The are highly regarded in their respective nations.
Upon the arrival of the Cuban Communist Party delegation in Vietnam on April 29, Morales Ojeda tweeted: “We arrive to the sister Socialist Republic of Vietnam, arriving in one of its most heroic and emblematic territories, Ho Chi Minh City, which today celebrates the 48th anniversary of the defeat of U.S. aggression and the reunification of the country. Congratulations Vietnam!” He observed the spectacular display of fireworks from the banks of the Saigon River, held every year to celebrate the victory over U.S. imperialism.
Remembering fundamental historical facts
Ho Chi Minh was born in the French protectorate of Annam (Vietnam) in French Indochina in 1890 and was socialized as a child and young adult in the moral and intellectual tradition of the nationalism of Confucian scholars. Forced to flee Indochina for his anti-colonial political activities, he arrived in Paris in 1917, encountering French socialism at the time of its division between the second and third internationals. Ho decided for the communists over the socialists, because of Lenin’s appreciation of the importance of the anti-colonial struggles of the world. Ho joined with those members of the French Socialist Party who voted on December 29, 1920, to form the French Communist Party and affiliate with Lenin’s Third International. He became a part of the international communist movement, headquartered in Moscow.
Ho subsequently studied in the Soviet Union, and as an unpaid volunteer of the Communist International, he was the leading force in the establishment in Hong Kong in February 1930 of the Indochinese Communist Party, which for decades would follow a strategy of alliance with other anti-colonial parties, under its guidance and direction. The Party-directed coalition, the Viet Minh, rose to power during World War II, winning the support of the people with effective guerrilla war against the forces of the Japanese occupation and with a pro-peasant agrarian reform program implemented in areas under its de facto control. As leader of the Vietnamese revolution, Ho forged a practical and theoretical synthesis of Vietnamese nationalism and Marxist-Leninism. (See “Ho Chi Minh: A theoretical synthesis forged in revolutionary practice,” July 15, 2022).
With the defeat of Japan, Ho declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the city of Hanoi on September 2, 1945, in a declaration that began by citing the “undeniable truths” of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which had affirmed that “all men are created equal.” The declaration severed all ties of a colonial character with France.
Ho led the nation through three decades of war, utilizing creative guerrilla strategies in two wars against Western powers. The first was the French war for reconquest of its colony. And the second was the U.S. imperialist war, which had endeavored to maintain Western control of the region of the city of Saigon and the former French colony of Cochin China, the commercial center of French colonialism in Indochina.
Ho Chi Minh died on September 2, 1969, six years before the triumphant taking of Saigon in 1975, the reunification of the country, and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with its capital city in Hanoi, and with the name of Saigon changed to Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnamese investments in Cuba
New projects of Vietnamese investment in the Mariel Special Zone of Development in Cuba were signed by the President of the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power, Esteban Lazo Hernández, and the President of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Vuong Dinh Hue. The new investments will be managed by the Thai Binh company, a Vietnamese-Cuban joint venture. The manager of the factory, Lázaro Menéndez Oña, pointed out that the factory has the capacity to produce 70,000 tons of powdered detergent per year plus 20,000 tons of liquid detergent, for the Cuban national market and for exportation.
The Cuban Vice Prime Minister of International Commerce and Foreign Investment, Ana Teresita González Fraga, pointed out that Thai Binh was the first Vietnamese company to invest in Cuba. It presently has three businesses dedicated to the production of disposable diapers and other personal hygiene articles and liquid and powdered detergents as well as a solar energy park that delivers energy to the Cuban National Electric System. González Fraga also noted that, with Vietnamese investments in light industry, the food industry, and renewable energy, Vietnam is a strategic partner, participating in an effective form in Cuban economic and social development.
Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of International Commerce and Foreign Investment, pointed out that there are important economic agreements between Cuba and Vietnam in the sectors of electricity, petroleum, and aviation; and there are other possibilities in the very short term in sectors that are highly prioritized by Cuba today, such as the food industry, renewable energy, tourism, and construction, which are of mutual benefit and will have great social impact.
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and Vuong Dinh Hue attended the opening ceremony of the Cuba-Vietnam Business Forum, an intergovernmental mechanism that has demonstrated its effectiveness for four decades. It has developed interchanges that have focused the attention of business managers in both countries on the production and commercialization of rice, special coffees, grains, chicken, and pork; the construction of parks for the generation of renewable energy; joint ventures in the hotel industry; and construction materials. At the Business Forum, the Cuban and Vietnamese delegations signed new agreements of bilateral cooperation between Cuban and Vietnamese companies in the airline, electricity, petroleum, and construction industries. Subsequently, the Cuba-Vietnam Intergovernmental Commission met for the purpose of discussing the implementation of the bilateral accords.
Vietnam has the capacity to invest in Cuba today because of its success in introducing market reforms in agriculture and industry, initiated in the 1980s, which it has called the Doi Moi (Renovation), formally proclaimed by the Communist Party of Vietnam on December 15-18, 1986. The reforms expanded the possibilities for domestic and foreign-owned private enterprises, existing alongside state-owned economic enterprises, all operating under the direction of the people’s-controlled state and in accordance with state planning. The Renovation increased productivity, and it led to exceptionally fast economic growth. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has outperformed the most advanced semi-industrialized capitalist countries in southeast Asia with respect to GDP, GDP per capital, labor productivity, and wages.
Conclusion
There is between Vietnam and Cuba a historic relation of solidarity and a contemporary economic relation of mutual benefit. It is one example today of the implementation in practice of the historic call of the Third World project for South-South cooperation. Such is the form that anti-imperialist resistance takes today. No longer armed struggle, even though the nations maintain armies for self-defense. No longer mass demonstrations and the shouting of slogans in the street, even though the once colonized nations regularly hold festive mass celebrations to commemorate historic victories over colonialism and imperialism. Today, anti-imperialist resistance involves the step-by-step construction of an alternative world order, guided by parties and leaders who have an appreciation for the historic leaders who came before them and who built the foundation on which they stand. Today’s anti-imperialist struggle is scarcely seen by Western leaders, journalists, intellectuals, and activists, unable to recognize it as anti-imperialist struggle constructing in practice an alternative more just and sustainable international world order.
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