Party General Secretary and State President To Lam (L) welcomed at Paris's Orly Airport (Photo: VNA)

Party General Secretary and State President To Lam and his entourage arrived at Orly Airport in Paris in the evening of October 3 (local time), starting their participation in the 19th Francophonie Summit and an official visit to France from October 3-7 at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Prominent in his entourage are Bui Thi Minh Hoai, Politburo member, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee; Nguyen Duy Ngoc, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chief of the Office of the Party Central Committee; Le Hoai Trung, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, head of its Commission for External Relations; and Bui Thanh Son, member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Lam’s participation in the summit is to continue affirming Vietnam’s role as a key member of the Francophonie community in Asia-Pacific, as well as Vietnam’s active and responsible participation in the activities of the Francophonie community in particular and the international community at large, helping strengthen and consolidate multilateralism and international cooperation and solidarity.

Through the participation, Vietnam continues to affirm its socio-economic and cultural achievements over the past time.

This also marks the first visit by a Vietnamese President to France in the past 22 years, aiming at making the bilateral strategic partnership more profound and practical; further boosting the bilateral cooperation, especially in the field of trade, investment, culture, education, science and technology, and cooperation among localities. It is also to intensify party-to-party foreign activities, especially with the Communist Party of France, and people-to-people diplomacy, thus pushing the French government to continue its attention, support, and facilitation for the Vietnamese community in the host country./.

VNA