President praises Vietnamese experts' contributions to Cambodian Revolution

President Tran Dai Quang held a meeting on December 14 with a delegation of 23 representatives from the Liaison Committee of Vietnamese Veteran Experts Assisting the Cambodian Revolution on the 38th anniversary of the day Vietnam’s volunteer army and experts helped the Cambodian people overthrow the genocidal Khmer Rouge régime (January 7, 1979).

President Tran Dai Quang speaks at the meeting with representatives from the Liaison Committee of Vietnamese Veteran Experts Assisting the Cambodian Revolution at the Presidential Palace, Hanoi, December 14. (Credit: VNA)

After hearing a report on the committee’s past operations, President Quang noted that he highly appreciated the achievements of the committee in recent years.

The president expressed special appreciation for the board’s operations in visiting and assisting former experts, sick soldiers and martyrs’ families, while making initiatives to advise the Party and the State on the commendation of former volunteers and experts actively compiling memoirs to educate younger generations on their work.

 

The committee has also gotten actively involved in people’s exchange activities between the two nations, particularly supporting Cambodian students studying in Vietnam and coordinating with the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Association to organise practical activities to celebrate 37 years since Vietnamese people helped the Cambodians overthrow the genocidal régime, contributing to strengthening and developing Vietnam and Cambodia’s friendly relations and traditional comprehensive cooperation.

 

The leader expressed his wish that former Vietnamese experts would continue to contribute to the compilation of a book Ten Years of Vietnamese Experts Aiding the Cambodian Revolution (1978-1988), while actively participating in patriotic emulation movements.

 

President Quang emphasised that contributions by former Vietnamese experts to the Cambodian Revolution were especially deserving of recognition with the most prestigious awards from the Party and State.

 

He added that such awards were recognition, gratitude and significant education of younger generations about the country’s revolutionary tradition and the traditional neighbourly relations and friendship between the two countries.

 

The president tasked the President’s Office with coordinating with relevant ministries, branches and localities to expeditiously study and settle the awards for former Vietnamese experts in Cambodia.

 

Nearly 38 years ago, on January 7, 1979, the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh was liberated. Twenty-five days later, all cities and townships in the country were completely liberated.

 

After Cambodia was completely liberated from the brutal genocidal Khmer Rouge régime, the Party and State of Vietnam and its people continued to help the fraternal people of Cambodia to rebuild their country from ruins, bearing in mind President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching that “assisting friends is also helping ourselves” and acting in the sublime spirit of proletarian internationalism.

 

Vietnam’s volunteer soldiers and experts went through great hardships in the course of the Cambodian Revolution, aiding Cambodia in its national construction, protection, restoration and development in the various fields of politics, economics, culture, education, healthcare, social welfare and defence and security from the central to the grassroots levels.

 

The Vietnamese volunteer military and expert delegation successfully completed their tasks of proletarian internationalism and returned to their homeland on September 26, 1989.

 

(Sourcre: NDO)