Hanoi, Vietnam.- Cuban First Vicepresident, Salvador Valdés Mesa, heads a delegation that will visit Vietnam from September 12 thru 17, the same days in which Fidel Castro visited this country in 1973.

The also member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba will participate beginning tomorrow in several activities marking that memorable visit to be held in this capital and in the central provinces of Quang Binh and Quang Tri.

The historical leader of the Cuban Revolution was the first statesman to face the dangers of crossing the Parallel 17, the imaginary line that then divided the north from the south of the Indochinese nation, involved in a war for the reunification that the United States pretended to prevent.

Valdes Mesa will meet Vietnamese leaders in order to give further impulse to political, trade and cooperation links between both States.

One of the first activities will consist in rendering homage to the leader of Vietnam’s Independence, Ho Chi Minh, at the mausoleum conserving his remains in Hanoi.

He will also visit places previously visited by the then Cuban Prime Minister when he was 45 years ago in Quang Binh and Quang Tri. In this last province he will participate in the inauguration of a square to be named Fidel Castro.

Mesa Valdes in on a work tour to Asia that included China and North Korea. In Beijing, he was received by the Politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party

Yang Jiechi, and the Vicepresident of the Republic, Wang Qishan, among other leaders.

Last week, he participated in activities for the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (PDRK) and attended a military and people’s parade in greeting to that event.

Also, an artistic gala for that date, accompanied by the member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of Korea’s Workers Party and president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the PDRK, Kim Yong-nam.

The Cuban delegation is also formed by First deputy Foreign Minister, Marcelino Medina, and the director of Asia and the Pacific of the Foreign Ministry, Alberto Blanco.

In Cuba, there have been several activities remembering the historic visit of Fidel to Vietnam, which will end next Wednesday 12 with a central act in Havana.