The Party leader, accompanied by a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, was received by French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary and Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep along with representatives from the French Government and the overseas Vietnamese community in France.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and leaders from Montreuil city laid wreaths at the statue of late President Ho Chi Minh to commemorate the national hero and the world cultural celebrity (Photo: VNA)
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Montreuil Mayor Patrice Bessac gave a warm welcome to the Vietnamese Party Leader and the delegation. The Mayor expressed his deep respect for President Ho Chi Minh as the Old Father of Vietnam as well as of other nations and Montreuil citizens. He also highlighted the activities of the late President Ho Chi Minh in his city, saying that he was one of the symbols of the struggle against imperialism and colonialism.
The Ho Chi Minh Space was established in the Living History Museum in 2000, on the occasion of the late leader’s 110th birthday. On an area of 10m2, the Montreuil authorities reconstructed a replica of House No. 9 on Compoint alley, district 17, where Ho Chi Minh lived during his stay in France in the early 20th century.The site preserves objects related to President Ho Chi Minh. These objects are arranged in a logical order so that the visitors can imagine President Ho’s workplace and lifestyle.
Outside the Living History Museum is the statue of Uncle Ho, inaugurated by the city in 2005, on the occasion of the 115th birthday of the late leader.
Visiting those historic sites, Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong thanked Montreuil city for preserving remembrances of the Vietnamese leader, expressing hope in the city’s continuous prosperity as well as further friendship and cooperation between Montreuil and Vietnam.
During the March 25-27 visit, made at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the two sides are planned to sign a series of important cooperation documents on defence, justice, space technology, intellectual property, climate change response and tourism, along with economic contracts worth tens of billions of dollars. Strategic plans and new cooperation frameworks and mechanisms issued during the trip will reinforce the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.
Vietnam and France set up diplomatic ties on April 12, 1973. Over the past 45 years, especially since the establishment of the strategic partnership in 2013, the bilateral relations have developed remarkably.
France is an important European partner of Vietnam, with two-way trade in 2017 reaching US$4.6 billion, up 11.6% compared to 2016.
Last year, France ranked third among the European countries, and 16th among 125 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with 513 valid projects worth US$2.8 billion. The country is also a leading European ODA provider for Vietnam, and Vietnam is the second largest beneficiary nation of French ODA in Asia, with a total committed capital of US$18.4 billion since 1993, according to General Statistics Office of Vietnam.
