Havana/The Military Radio and Television Center of the Ministry of Defense of Vietnam presented the first three chapters of the documentary series Two hearts, one beat, about the “common military history” of Cuba and the Asian country. To the projection Last week in Hanoi, in which senior Vietnamese officers participated, the island’s ambassador, Orlando Hernández, attended, defining relations between the armies of both countries as “essential.”
The material, filmed in facilities of the Armed Forces and the Presidency of Cuba, is similar to what was broadcast weeks ago by the Russian government channel Zvezda, although the recordings that Vietnam has published focus – for the moment – on outlining the historical background of military cooperation between Havana and Hanoi.
Hernández celebrated the work of the filmmakers – all military – for underlining “the common and uncompromising objective of achieving independence at all costs.” Major General Ngueyn Kim Ton, the mastermind behind the series and director of the channel, also participated in the screening, whom the Cuban diplomat congratulated for completing, in 2024, the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Military Cooperation Treaty between Vietnam and Cuba, which has brought a “strengthening of relations between the Armed Forces of these two relatively small countries, but with great traditions of struggle and where the largest army is the people themselves.”
Hernández celebrated the work of the filmmakers – all military – for underlining “the common and uncompromising objective of achieving independence at all costs.”
Still incomplete, the documentary series – which began to take shape in 2020 – has already received the National Foreign Information Award and has all the support, Hernández insisted, of the Armies and Governments of both nations.
One of the most enthusiastic in his support for the series has been Miguel Díaz-Canel, who had a dear to dear with the filmmakers in 2023 and is even part of the documentary. “Two hearts with the same beat, that’s how we always feel with our Vietnamese brothers,” Díaz-Canel idealized in X, along with a photograph with the recording team, all in military uniform.
The official press then recounted details about the filming, which took the Vietnamese delegation to several locations of the Cuban Army, in addition to the Fidel Castro Center and the José Martí Military Technical Institute, “the highest level training center in technical specialties of the Forces.” Armed Forces”, where “numerous generations of Vietnamese students have been trained”.
Other material broadcast by the Radio and Television Center about the visit of the filming team to Cuba recalled that there are Cuban soldiers who receive training in the Asian country, as well as military personnel and medical students from that country who travel to the Island every year to train. .
The numerous meetings between the Cuban side and the Hanoi delegation that have resulted, in recent years, from the making of the documentary, have been accompanied at all times by the Minister of the Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, the direct link with that country, and whose visit in June 2023 managed to reactivate military cooperation, the state press stated at the time.
Cuba has also indicated on numerous occasions that Vietnam is its second trading partner and the first investor in Asia.
This Thursday, a note published by Prensa Latina announced the signing of “high-level” agreements between Havana and Hanoi, celebrated by the Foreign authorities of both countries and with the intervention of their communist parties. The content of the agreements, however, was not revealed. Cuba has also pointed out on numerous occasions that Vietnam is its second trading partner and the first investor in Asia, in addition to “owning important businesses in the Mariel Economic Development Zone,” such as a diaper and sanitary pad factory, and “investments in renewable energy sources.
Regarding the filming of the documentary, an article published by the official Cuban press in April 2023 indicated the end of the recordings. The images released later, however, are limited to interviewing soldiers and specialists in some squares in Havana and recalling the common history of both countries. Without weapons, military exercises or images of the main Army enclaves, the Vietnamese material was not as explicit as that recorded months later by the Russian delegation that arrived on the military ship. Perekop.
However, during the reception of the Vietnamese in 2021, the Cuban military made foreign officials a promise much more dangerous than their apparent submission to Moscow: “For Vietnam, Cuba is willing to shed its blood.”
