CP of Canada meets with General Secretary of CP of Vietnam
On September 25, the Communist Party of Canada met with Comrade Tô Lâm, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Gatineau, Quebec. The CPC delegation from its Central Executive Committee included Party Leader Drew Garvie, former Leader and Trade Union Commission Chair Elizabeth Rowley, Peace and Solidarity Commission Chair and National Secretary of the Communist Party of Quebec Adrien Welsh, and General Secretary of the Young Communist League Ivan Byard.
The CPC expressed support for the official state visit’s success in building mutually beneficial trade with Canada and congratulated the CPV on its 14th National Congress. Drew Garvie said the CPC was proud of its history in solidarity with Vietnam’s struggle for independence against colonialism and imperialism. He expressed interest in Vietnam’s people-centred development, which has driven major growth in living standards and real wages. The CPC appreciated Comrade Tô Lâm’s UN General Assembly remarks calling for stronger international law and the UN Charter, a Palestinian state, an end to the U.S. blockade on Cuba, and international cooperation on nuclear disarmament earlier in the week.
Comrade Tô Lâm expressed that the CPV had always attached great importance to its traditional friendship with the CPC, and expressed the hope that the two parties would strengthen their coordination and exchanges. Comrade Tô Lâm affirmed Vietnam’s consistent importance to relations with Canada and explained that Canada and Vietnam had agreed to elevate ties to a strategic partnership. Tô Lâm highlighted Vietnam’s achievements since the 14th National Congress, including 8.17% growth over the past six months, and its path toward becoming a developing country with middle income by 2030—the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPV—and a developed country with high income by 2045, the centenary of the country. He also underlined Vietnam’s 40 years of Đổi Mới achievements, and invited the Communist Party of Canada leadership to visit Vietnam to learn more.
The parties exchanged gifts. The CPC presented a photograph of the historic 1965 meeting of CPC leaders Tim Buck and Maurice Rush with Hồ Chí Minh—the historic trip where Hồ Chí Minh was interviewed for the Canadian Tribune and Buck and Rush toured Canada to expose imperialism’s crimes in its war against Vietnamese independence.