General Secretary To Lam receives Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka

On the afternoon of May 4, at the Party Central Committee Headquarters, General Secretary To Lam received Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka - leader of the Sri Lanka People's Liberation Front (JVP), on the occasion of his State visit to Vietnam and attendance at the United Nations Day of Vesak.

At the meeting, General Secretary To Lam welcomed President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka's visit to Vietnam on the occasion of the two countries celebrating the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations; highly appreciated the President for accepting the invitation to attend and speak at the opening ceremony of the Vesak Festival; thanked the President for sending a congratulatory letter on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification; emphasized that this is a particularly important event, not only for the Vietnamese people but also for international friends, including Sri Lanka, who have accompanied, supported and helped Vietnam in the resistance war for national independence.

The General Secretary congratulated the President and the JVP, the core of the ruling coalition National People's Power Party (NPP), on winning the election in Sri Lanka at the end of 2024, saying that this result demonstrated the high trust of the Sri Lankan people in the JVP and the President personally; expressing his belief that under the President's leadership, Sri Lanka will achieve many achievements in socio-economic development and national stability, completing the goal of becoming a developed country by 2048 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the country's founding, and continuously strengthening its reputation in the international community.

President Anura Kumara Disanayaka emphasizing that Vietnam and Sri Lanka have a close, close friendship and have always supported each other throughout history. The President once again congratulated the Party, State and people of Vietnam on the historic victory on April 30, 1975, affirming that this was not only a victory of the Vietnamese people, but also a victory of the Sri Lankan people as well as peace-loving people around the world.

The President expressed his admiration for Vietnam's remarkable achievements in economic development. After only 50 years of national reunification, Vietnam has become one of the countries with the highest growth rate in the world, with its role, position and prestige constantly being enhanced; he wished to learn from Vietnam's experience in economic development, institutional reform, anti-corruption, negativity and governance.

General Secretary To Lam and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka. (Photo: DANG KHOA)

The two sides expressed satisfaction with the sustainable development of the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries. Vietnam and Sri Lanka Over the past 55 years, the two countries have built deep strategic trust and close cooperation in many fields, especially politics, foreign affairs, culture, and people-to-people exchange.

The two sides emphasized that the long-standing friendship, trust and mutual understanding are an important foundation for the two sides to continue to effectively exploit the potential and strengths of each country and promote extensive cooperation to bring the relationship to new heights, bringing common benefits and contributing to development and stability in the region.

In that spirit, General Secretary To Lam and President Anura agreed to continue to further strengthen trust and cohesion between the two countries and the two ruling parties, promote the exchange of delegations at all levels, and make defense-security cooperation a new pillar in bilateral relations; at the same time, create breakthroughs in economic, trade and investment cooperation, contributing to effectively responding to rapid changes in the global political and economic situation.

The General Secretary affirmed that with its strengths, Vietnam wishes to accompany and cooperate with Sri Lanka in socio-economic development.

The President of Sri Lanka welcomed and affirmed that he would create favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to invest in important and strategic fields in Sri Lanka.

The two sides also agreed to further expand cooperation in agriculture, education, culture, people-to-people exchange, tourism, and religion, and promote the early opening of direct flights to support cooperation and connect the two countries.

The two leaders agreed to cooperate more closely and increase mutual support at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations and South-South cooperation. General Secretary To Lam appreciated Sri Lanka as an active member of the United Nations and welcomed Sri Lanka to further strengthen its cooperative relations with ASEAN.

On this occasion, President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka respectfully invited General Secretary To Lam to visit Sri Lanka in the near future. The General Secretary thanked him and assigned the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs to make arrangements.

Source