Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited the Cambodian Embassyin Vietnam on June 19 to offer his deepest sympathies over the thepassing of President of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) andPresident of the Senate Chea Sim.

In his notes in the funeralbook, the Vietnamese leader highlighted the important contributions madeby Chea Sim as an excellent leader of Cambodia to the country’s peaceand national unity cause as well as its national construction anddevelopment.

The death of the Cambodian leader is a great loss toCambodia and Vietnam loses a close friend who made importantcontributions to the development of the traditional solidarity,friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the Communist Party ofVietnam (CPV) and the CPP as well as the two States and peoples, hesaid.

On the same day, Head of the Party Central Committee’sCommission for External Relations Hoang Binh Quan, Deputy ForeignMinister Bui Thanh Son, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment andVice President of the Vietnam-Cambodia Cooperation Subcommittee NguyenChi Dung, and representatives from the Ministries of Defence, and PublicSecurity and a number of other agencies also wrote their condolences inthe funeral book.

A delegation from the PartyCommittee People’s Committee and People’s Council and VietnameseFatherland Front led by Deputy Secretary of the municipal PartyCommittee Vo Van Thuong also paid tribute to the late Cambodian leaderat the Cambodian Consulate General in HCM City.

Chea Sim, who died on June 8 from an illness, served as President of the National Assembly of Cambodia from 1981-1998.

He held various positions in both the executive and legislativebranches, ranging from Chairman of the Council of State, Minister of theInterior and Head of both the lower house and upper house.

He was elected as President of the CPP during its establishment in 1991 and President of the Senate in 1999.-VNA