General Secretary To Lam and his wife begin official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria

General Secretary To Lam and his wife Ngo Phuong Ly in Bulgaria - Photo: VNA

On the evening of October 22nd, after a nearly three-hour flight from Finland, General Secretary To Lam and his wife, along with the high-level Vietnamese delegation, arrived in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, at 7:45 PM (local time, which is 11:45 PM on October 22nd in Vietnam).

Mr. Atanas Zafirov, Chairman of the Socialist Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria, welcomed General Secretary To Lam and his wife to begin their official visit to the country from October 22 to 24 at the invitation of Bulgarian President Rumen Radev.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Bulgaria Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet and embassy staff and the local Vietnamese community also went to the airport to welcome the delegation.

75 years of Vietnam - Bulgaria relations

This is the first time the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam has visited Bulgaria in 50 years, marking a new step of development in the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Bulgaria.

The strong relationship between the two countries has been nurtured and maintained a high level of political trust since very early on, when President Ho Chi Minh paid an official friendly visit to the country in 1957. Sofia’s support and pure international solidarity for Hanoi were also clearly demonstrated during Vietnam’s difficult years.

According to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang, the Vietnamese people always remember the image of thousands of Bulgarian students and people taking to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam. Those are also meaningful gifts from the Bulgarian people that still exist today in Vietnam such as the Viet-Bun Hospital in Thai Binh (old) or the Viet-Bun Kindergarten in the capital Hanoi.

Furthermore, Bulgaria has trained thousands of Vietnamese experts with university and postgraduate degrees, as well as tens of thousands of skilled workers. These individuals later became a valuable source of high-quality human resources for Vietnam's national development.

The Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party welcomes General Secretary To Lam and his wife Ngo Phuong Ly at the airport - Photo: VNA

According to Deputy Minister Le Thi Thu Hang, this visit is an opportunity for senior leaders of both sides to set out strategic directions, bringing the long-standing traditional friendship between Vietnam and Bulgaria to a new height.

Especially in the fields of cooperation where Bulgaria has strengths and Vietnam has needs such as information technology, quantum, artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation, green transformation, biomedicine, etc.

Speaking further about this, Vietnamese Ambassador to Bulgaria Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet pointed out a number of areas where the two sides have complementary cooperation.

For example, in green and digital transformation cooperation, the two countries can take advantage of Bulgaria's strengths in technology, innovation and high-quality human resources combined with Vietnam's production capacity and market size.

Spreading Vietnamese cultural values in Finland

Mrs. Ngo Phuong Ly donated a Vietnamese bookcase to Oodi Central Library on October 21 - Photo: World and Vietnam Newspaper/Nguyen Hong

Before leaving Finland on October 22, General Secretary To Lam met with First Vice President of the Finnish Parliament Paula Risikko and received the leadership of the Finland - Vietnam Friendship Association.

During her time in Finland, Mrs. Ngo Phuong Ly , wife of General Secretary To Lam, visited and observed a Vietnamese language class at Vesala School on October 22nd. It is known that the school has maintained this class for nearly 40 years and currently has over 40 students of Vietnamese origin.

In the class, Mrs. Ngo Phuong Ly expressed her emotion and pride when witnessing the children, a generation of young Vietnamese born and raised in Finland, still diligently learning Vietnamese in a modern educational environment at Vesala School.

She emphasized that Vietnamese is not only a means of communication but also a bond connecting each person to their family, community, and homeland. Through learning Vietnamese , children gain a deeper understanding of their grandparents and parents – those who always hope their children will connect with their national roots.

On this occasion, Mrs. Ngo Phuong Ly presented the "Vietnamese Bookshelf" with about 120 books, more than 300 textbooks, children's comics, literature books, history, geography, and Vietnamese people.

Mrs. Ngo Phuong Ly at Oodi Central Library on October 21 - Photo: World and Vietnam Newspaper/Nguyen Hong

Previously, on October 21, Mrs. Ngo Phuong Ly and the wife of the President of Finland, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, visited the Oodi Central Library in Helsinki. On this occasion, the wife of General Secretary To Lam, on behalf of the Vietnamese delegation, presented the Oodi Library with a "Vietnamese Bookcase" consisting of more than 120 selected books and nearly 160 Vietnamese and bilingual books.

The bookcase is located in the "Book Paradise" area of the library, which is the first Vietnamese reading corner in the Helsinki public library system and is open to the public free of charge.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tong-bi-thu-to-lam-va-phu-nhan-bat-dau-tham-chinh-thuc-bulgaria-20251023012958678.htm