Vietnamese president plans to visit Moscow on May 9
MOSCOW. Jan 30 (Interfax) - Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang will attend the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II in Moscow on May 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
"We are grateful to President of Vietnam Truong Tan Sang for confirmation of his attendance at these ceremonies [the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Vietnam and the 70th WWII victory anniversary]," Lavrov said in an interview with Vietnamese media.
The text of the interview was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.
Several days before the May 9 events, the 40th anniversary of the liberation of South Vietnam will be celebrated, and the 40th anniversary of Vietnam's independence will be marked in the fall of 2015, the Russian minister said.
"On these occasions, we have plans for bilateral events. Our countries are expected to participate in multilateral ceremonies. I am convinced that both the Russians and the Vietnamese will mark these anniversaries in a worthy manner," Lavrov said.
"We are unanimous in our belief that these dates should be used both to pay our respects to those who died for the freedom and independence of Russia, Vietnam, Europe, Asia and the entire world and to remind everyone about the unacceptability of attempts to distort historical facts, rewrite history in the interests of today's political trends, condemn to oblivion the feat of those who sacrificed their lives for the sake of freedom and independence, as certain persons do today, and bracket the winners with those who unleashed aggressive wars and promoted ideologies of hatred toward mankind," the Russian minister said.
