Havana (VNA) 🍒– Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduroreceived outgoing Vietnamese Ambassador Le Viet Duyen on March 13, highlightingthe two countries’ fraternity and friendship and calling for strongercooperation to obtain concrete results in the fields of trade and production.

President Maduro bestowed the first-class Order of Franciscode Miranda upon Duyen in recognition of the diplomat’s contributions over thepast years. He emphasised the milestones in cooperation development and expansionwith Vietnam, expressing his admiration for the Vietnamese people’ssteadfastness in the fight for national independence and the nationalreconstruction to help turn the country into one of the fastest-growing nationsin Asia nowadays. The host expressed his delightat the progress, modest but important, in the partnerships with Vietnam in suchareas as trade, agriculture, education, and health care, as well as the twocountries’ close coordination in all issues, from international politics to geopoliticsand diplomacy. He called on both countries to make utmost efforts to ensure bilateralactivities generate concrete results and promote trade and agricultural links. Venezuela is now well-position to receiveknowledge and technological cooperation to step up food production, Maduronoted, asking for strengthening ties between Petróleosde Venezuela, S.A., the national oil and gas company of hiscountry, and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) to reach majoragreements. For his part, Ambassador Duyen expressed his honour toreceive the first-class Order of Francisco de Miranda, a noble decoration theVenezuelan President presents to domestic or foreign individuals with specialcontributions to the South American country’s sciences or development. He also thanked the Venezuelan people and Government fortheir sentiment towards Vietnam. President Maduro voiced his wish to re-visit Vietnam soon toreach large agreements and reinforce bilateral cooperation and friendship./.