VN,
Russia to foster closer security ties

Viet Nam
has called on Russia to assist it in educating its science and technology staff
while continuing its supply of security equipment to the country.

Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made the above statement while welcoming Russian
Security Council Secretary General Nicolai Platonovich Patrushev yesterday, June
9.

Dung
expressed his delight at the development of the Viet Nam-Russia traditional
friendship and strategic partnership.

Viet Nam
has always attached special importance to its co-operation with Russia and would
exert itself in joining hands with the country in order to boost further ties.

Dung
affirmed his support for co-operation agreements signed between the two sides,
saying that he hoped that the two countries could continue strengthening their
ties in economics, trade and investment while better facilitating Russian
enterprises to invest in Viet Nam.

During
their meeting, Dung called for co-operation in preparing for Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Viet Nam.

Nicolai
Platonovich Patrushev expressed his satisfaction regarding the strong
development of bilateral relations over the past years across many fields
including security and national defence, affirming that Russia would continue to
pay specific attention to fostering its security co-operation with Viet Nam.

Patrushev said that meetings between high-level leaders from both countries had
contributed greatly to building a strong bilateral strategic partnership.

Vietnam suggests increasing HIV/AIDS prevention

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong
delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in
New York on June 9 (Hanoi time), marking suggestions on how to strengthen the
efficiency of HIV/AIDS prevention.

“The international community must remain vigilant and ensure necessary resources
for national and international responses to HIV/AIDS,” he said.
HIV/AIDS is now the biggest challenge posed to poor and developing countries,
therefore, the international community should pay special attention and support
HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in these countries, he added.
The Vietnamese representative emphasized the urgent need to implement
comprehensive prevention measures, including education, communication and
awareness improvement, especially among young people.
HIV/AIDS patients should gain access to better health care services, especially
ART and Methadone, he said, adding that conditions should be created for
producing low-cost ART and Methadone through technological transfer and aid.
“It is very important to implement early diagnosis and uninterrupted treatment
measures for HIV/AIDS infected people,” he stressed.
According to Deputy PM Trong, with Vietnam’s great efforts, the number of
HIV/AIDS patients accounts for only 0.26 percent of the population and the
country has also seen initial results in controlling HIV/AIDS.
Over the past two years, the number of people who die of the disease has dropped
from 6,000 to 2,500 per year, Mr Trong said.
Vietnam has issued the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control and many other
legal documents on this issue, encouraging and creating favourable conditions
for the greater participation of people and social organisations in the fight
against HIV virus, he added.
He stressed that the Vietnamese government and people highly value the important
assistance and effective cooperation of the UN, especially the Joint UN
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), international funds and organisations, for
Vietnam’s prevention and control efforts over the past years.
“The Vietnamese government and people are strongly committed to realising
national and international objectives on accessing and popularising HIV/AIDS
prevention, treatment and care measures as well as the UN’s latest initiatives
on no new HIV carriers, no discrimination and no death of HIV/AIDS,” the Deputy
PM said.
He also expressed his hope that Vietnam will receive continued support and close
and effective cooperation from the UN’s bodies and member countries as well as
international organisations in this effort.
More than 30 heads of State and government along with 3,000 representatives from
international, non-governmental and social organisations, development partners
and people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world attended the UN General
Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, which opened in New York on June 8.
The meeting includes a plenum, five sessions of UN committees and 40 sidelines
events, which aim to review progresses and challenges in the fight against
HIV/AIDS during the past 30 years as well as discuss future global responses to
this disease in the next five years.
In his opening remarks, UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss affirmed that
it’s decisive time for the fight against HIV/AIDS, adding that over the past
three decades, more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV and at
least 25 million of them have died and over 16 million children have lost their
parents due to the disease.
Therefore, the meeting offers an important opportunity for UN members to
reaffirm commitments to enhance joint actions for the fight against HIV/AIDS, he
said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon affirmed that the HIV/AIDS fight is not only
the one against disease but also the struggle for human rights and gender
equality.
The meeting is an appeal to all partners for tightening global solidarity
furthermost, considering it the only way to boost the access and popularisation
of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment measures and care for HIV/AIDS patients in
2015, he said.
Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS),
highlighted the international community’s common successes in HIV/AIDS
prevention over the past 30 years, saying that the rate of new HIV infected
people on the globe fell by 25 percent compared to that of 10 years ago, the
number of people who died of the disease decreased by 20 percent over the past
five years and 6.6 million people in low-income and middle-income countries were
provided with HIV treatment.
However, there are still 34 million people in the world living with HIV, the
highest level over the past three decades, and 9 million HIV carriers in poor
countries are waiting for treatment, he said, adding that about 330,000 children
in poor nations are born with HIV/AIDS every year.

Fatherland Front delegation visits China

Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front
Central Committee Tran Hoang Tham had an exchange of views with Vice Chairman of
the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Wang Gang in Beijing on
June 9.

Tham, who is leading a Vietnamese delegation on a visit to China, affirmed that
Vietnam attached importance to relations with China and expressed his hope that
the two sides would develop the traditional friendship to bring the
Vietnam-China cooperation to a new height.
For his part, Wang said that more exchanges between the Chinese People’s
Political Consultative Conference and the Vietnam Fatherland Front would help
strengthen bilateral cooperation and friendship between the two people.

OVs in Thailand marks Uncle Ho’s liberation legacy

The day one century
ago when 21-year-old Nguyen Tat Thanh left Saigon port aboard a French ship on
his revolutionary pathway for national liberation was marked in Thailand on June
8.
Vietnamese Ambassador Ngo Duc Thang recalled the cook helper turned State
President’s overseas revolutionary life, beginning in the southern French port
of Marseilles . The revolutionary road later brought him to the United Kingdom ,
the United States of America and many other countries, including Thailand during
1928-29, when he called himself Thau Chin.
Thailand has built two sites of President Ho’s relics, one in Nong-on, Udon
Thani province and the other in Najok, Nakhon Phanom province.
The meeting that drew crowds of Overseas Vietnamese and students attending Thai
universities was followed by an incense-burning ritual for the late President.

An Overseas Vietnamese named Chau Kim Quoi said his compatriots in Thailand have
handed down stories about Uncle Ho with his ideology, marvellous achievements
and teachings, from generation to generation, in an effort to preserve the
Vietnamese identity overseas.
Nguyen Tuan Anh, a student from the Asia Institute of Technology (AIT), said
Uncle Ho is the Vietnamese nation’s pride and Vietnamese students in Thailand
pledged to follow his example and contribute their knowledge to building an
independent, peaceful and prosperous Vietnam.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VietnamPlus