Cultural cooperation is an effective tool to strengthen the friendship between Vietnam and Slovakia

On the afternoon of April 13, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Minister Lâm Thị Phương Thanh welcomed and held a working meeting with Slovakia’s Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová. Vietnamese Minister Thanh noted that Vietnam values the long-standing friendship with Slovakia; following talks between Prime Minister Lê Minh Hưng of Vietnam and Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia this morning, the two sides exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding on cultural cooperation, creating an important basis to promote future bilateral cooperation. Martina Šimkovičová emphasized the importance of cultural cooperation in strengthening bilateral relations. She expressed a positive impression of Vietnam and its people, and stressed that culture is an effective tool to enhance understanding and friendship between nations. She stated that signing the MoU on cultural cooperation for 2026–2030 would facilitate concrete, practical cooperation activities. Slovakia hopes to expand cultural and artistic exchanges, promote literary translation, book promotion, and film cooperation; organize a “Culture Day” of each country in Vietnam and Slovakia, as well as bilateral film weeks. Slovakia also proposed strengthening cooperation in traditional arts, organizing music and dance exchanges, and invited Vietnam to participate in cultural and artistic events in Slovakia. In response, Minister Lâm Thị Phương Thanh underscored that Vietnam and Slovakia have a good traditional friendship spanning more than 70 years, which provides a favorable basis for expanding cooperation, including in culture. She proposed increasing collaboration in areas such as preserving and promoting cultural heritage, digitizing heritage, boosting cultural and artistic exchanges in music, fine arts, and museums, and expanding delegation and expert exchanges to share experience. She added that Vietnam pays attention to preserving national cultural identity while deepening international integration through organizing and participating in large-scale cultural events. In the near term, Vietnam will continue to host many cultural activities, including World Cultural Festival, international film festivals, and traditional arts festivals. Thanh proposed increasing information exchange on cultural activities to promote people-to-people exchange, and expressed confidence that Vietnam–Slovakia relations will continue to develop strongly, with cultural cooperation playing a key bridging role. She also stated that, based on the recently signed Memorandum of Cultural Cooperation for 2026–2030 between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam and the Slovak Ministry of Culture, the two sides will implement specific activities to realize the agreed contents and enhance the effectiveness of cultural cooperation in the time ahead. Vietnam–Slovakia upgraded to Strategic Partnership, and later, six important cooperation documents between the two countries were announced. These developments reflect a broad intent to deepen collaboration in cultural, artistic, and educational exchanges between the two nations.