These are among the reflections drawn from personal experience shared by Tran Thi Xuan Oanh, Director General of the Asia-Africa Department under the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), in an interview with VietnamTimes Magazine.

Looking back on 75 years of people-to-people diplomacy, we can feel even more deeply that foreign non-governmental aid is not merely a flow of material resources; it is a flow of trust and humanity.

What should we do in the future to nurture and strengthen the bonds of friendship between the people of Viet Nam and the peoples of other nations? From this shared concern, international friends have sent Viet Nam their sincere ideas and initiatives.

President Ho Chi Minh once said, “The strength, greatness, and endurance of the Vietnamese people fundamentally lie in the unity of the Vietnamese people and the support of the peoples of the world… International solidarity is of great significance to us.” The history of Viet Nam’s struggle for national independence, as well as its efforts in national construction and defense, has recorded the tremendous contributions of people-to-people diplomacy. The vibrant reality of the 75-year journey of establishment and development of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations has clearly demonstrated the unique and distinctive strengths of Viet Nam’s people-to-people diplomacy.