General Secretary To Lam meets UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay

General Secretary To affirmed Viet Nam's commitment to multilateral cooperation and UNESCO's vital role, pledging enhanced contributions to its key governance mechanisms while seeking continued support for national development across education, science, culture and communications sectors.

To expressed his deep appreciation for UNESCO's valuable support over the recent past, particularly in recognizing 72 titles across the country, which, he described as valuable assets for sustainable socio-economic development, livelihood improvement, and cultural preservation.

As Viet Nam is stepping into a new era – the era of the nation's rise, aiming to realise its goal of becoming a developed, high-income nation by 2045, the country will continue its deep integration into the world politics, economy, and human civilisation, constantly striving to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, and development in the region and worldwide.

Against the backdrop, he called for UNESCO's continued assistance to Viet Nam's integration process, experience sharing, resources support for socio-economic development, and promotion of humanistic and cultural values aligned with both UNESCO's and Viet Nam's interests.

He called on UNESCO to remain a trusted partner in preserving and promoting Viet Nam's heritage sites and titles, calling for UNESCO's support in the implementation of the preservation and value promotion dossier for the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, nomination of the Yen Tu - Vinh Nghiem - Con Son - Kiep Bac Complex for world heritage status in July, as well as other submissions such as Dong Ho folk paintings for urgent safeguarding as intangible cultural heritage, and the inclusion of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in UNESCO's global creative and learning cities networks.

Viet Nam welcomes and backs UNESCO's mid-term vision and strategy for the 2022-2029 period, UNESCO strategic transformation, and the organisation's priority cooperation initiatives and programmes, especially in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, stressed the Party leader.

Azoulay, for her part, praised nearly 50 years of fruitful cooperation with Viet Nam, calling the country one of UNESCO's most active members, stating that the Viet Nam-UNESCO cooperation has never been as good as it is today.

She thanked Viet Nam for its strong support and commitment, hoping the country will make further contributions to UNESCO's activities. Viet Nam's current positions in UNESCO's key mechanisms demonstrate the organisation and member states' confidence in Viet Nam's contributions to the organisation's collective activities.

Expressing her impression of the country's recent socio-economic achievements, she said Viet Nam is a model that many other countries could learn from. Azoulay highly praised the vision and wise leadership of the Vietnamese Party and State through major institutional reforms which create key momentum for national development.

The UNESCO Director-General highlighted that the recognition of Viet Nam's titles and heritage demonstrates the international community's high regard for the country's cultural values while perfectly aligning with Viet Nam's development trends. Besides, this also reflects appreciation for Viet Nam's efforts and commitment to enriching the treasury of the human civilisation and contributing to the international community's common efforts.

UNESCO will continue to back Viet Nam's nominations and heritage conservation efforts, while working with the country to develop its cultural industries, she pledged./.