Vietnam leader visits communist ally in Cuba
The secretary-general of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh, has arrived in Cuba to strengthen ties between two of the world's last five communist-run countries.
The Vietnamese leader will hold political talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro and visit Havana's Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Cuban officials said.
"The friendship and solidarity between Vietnam and Cuba are permanent," Mr Manh said before departing Hanoi on a two-week trip that includes Germany and Belgium.
Vietnam and Cuba have long admired each other and share a history of conflict with the United States, although the south-east Asian country has restored diplomatic and trade relations with its former war adversary.
Hanoi and Havana have been good allies since Cuba backed North Vietnam in the Vietnam War.
Vietnam supplies Cuba with 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes a year of rice, the Caribbean island's main staple.
A Vietnamese diplomat said a Cuban-Vietnamese joint venture is supervising the construction of the national highway in Vietnam, following the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of jungle trails and roads linking northern and southern Vietnam and used as a resupply route for Hanoi's forces operating in the south during the war.
Reuters - March 06, 2004.
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