It is a great honor to be able to celebrate this historic day in Hanoi, emphasized the former dignitary, recalling that the Institute of Friendship with Vietnam was founded in her country back in 1965 and young people closely followed the struggle of the heroic Vietnamese people.
That’s why we were on the streets encouraging Vietnam and its great leader, Uncle Ho, stressed Bachelet, who confirmed that relations between the two countries are based on common values: peace, independence, freedom and the desire for each nation to live according to its own perspective horizon can develop.
He said that he had visited this Indochinese nation at different points in its history, which allowed him to review the extraordinary progress made after the war and reunification, and he reiterated that Vietnam also faces the challenges ahead Chile’s support can count.
The President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), Nguyen Phuong Nga, described Bachelet as a close friend, who highlighted the visit of then-President of the Chilean Senate Salvador Allende here in May 1969
The meeting between Allende and President Ho Chi Minh laid the foundation for building a solid relationship of friendship and cooperation between the two nations, he appreciated.
He also recalled the creation in 1976 of the Vietnam Solidarity Committee with the Chilean people, then subject to the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.
The head of VUFO believed that the visit of Bachelet and the accompanying delegation to other Vietnamese provinces will help promote cooperation in all fields and strengthen people-to-people ties, and predicted a bright future for bilateral relations.
Chilean Ambassador here, Sergio Narea, spoke at the event and recalled that in 1973 President Salvador Allende ordered Foreign Minister Clodomiro Almeyda to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with Vietnam, which came about on March 25 of that year and was cataloged as a visionary decision .
The diplomat listed some of the two countries’ most important achievements in their historic bonds of friendship and solidarity, which he says are rooted in mutual affection and respect, “although some believe that’s in Chilean red wine as well,” he joked. Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc, present at the ceremony, described the visit of Bachelet and her companions as a milestone in the comprehensive relationship between Vietnam and Chile, two nations that have overcome numerous challenges and difficulties in more than half a century, he said .
Kim Ngoc recalled the 200-kilometer march undertaken by young Chileans from Valparaíso to Santiago de Chile in 1965 in support of the Vietnamese people’s struggle for independence, and also alluded to the 1969 meeting between Allende and Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi.
He also expects Chilean President Gabriel Boric to visit the country in the near future, which he believes will be an important step in taking bilateral ties to a new height.
ode/mpm