Pretoria (VNA) – The 45th foundinganniversary of Vietnam-Mozambique diplomatic relations was celebrated with anevent held in Maputo, the capital of the African nation, on December 18.

In his opening remarks, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Huy Hoang emphasisedthe significance of the day bilateral diplomatic ties were set up, June 25,1975, which was also when Mozambique declared its independence.

This important milestone opened up a new chapter in theirrelations, which have enjoyed proud, substantive, and effective achievements,he said.

The ambassador noted relations between the two ruling parties, the CommunistParty of Vietnam and the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), havecontinually been tightened and served as a firm foundation for theincreasingly substantive cooperation in various fields, from investment,telecommunications, and trade to agriculture, healthcare, and education.

Notably, Movitel, a 600 million USD joint venture betweenVietnam’s telecoms group Viettel and the SPI company of Mozambique, has beenoperating fruitfully, thus contributing to local socio-economic development.

Highlighting Vietnam’s successes during 35 years of reformsand its 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship, Hoang affirmed that Vietnam is always willingto assist and share experience with Mozambique, which is acting as Chair of theSouthern African Development Community, in socio-economic development, diseaseoutbreak prevention and control, along with regional and internationalintegration.

Mozambique Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs andCooperation Manuel Gonçalves said his country always treasures the twocountries’ traditional relations, including Vietnam’s solidarity with andprecious assistance for Mozambique during the fight for national independencein the past as well as development and pandemic and disaster settlement effortsat present.

Mozambique views Vietnam as an important partner in Asia, heaffirmed, speaking highly of the Southeast Asian nation’s achievements in industrialisation,modernisation, and human resources development, which have helped improve itspeople’s living standards.

The official said he hopes the two countries will keep reinforcingtheir friendship, increase all-level mutual visits and people-to-peopleexchange, and boost cooperation, especially in agriculture, aquaculture,science-technology, education-training, healthcare, defence, security, andnatural disaster response.

He also asked Vietnam to encourage more businesses to investin Mozambique in such priority areas as mining and agriculture./.