International partners praise Ho Chi Minh City Friendship Dialogue

The Ho Chi Minh City Friendship Dialogue 2026 was held on Friday in Vung Tau Ward under the theme “City Diplomacy: A Driving Force for Innovation and Sustainable Development”. 

The event, which brought together more than 500 delegates representing 35 delegations of local governments and international partners from nearly 20 countries, is one of Ho Chi Minh City’s key international outreach activities in 2026.

On the sidelines of the event, representatives of several foreign localities told Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper that they appreciated Ho Chi Minh City’s initiative to strengthen ties among local governments around the world.

Tobias David, senior adviser and former chief of staff to the mayor of Leipzig, Germany, said phone calls and video conferences could never replace face-to-face meetings.

“When you meet face to face, you build relationships and trust better. So I think the Friendship Dialogue is a perfect tool for strengthening relations between two cities, two governments and two economies,” David said.

David said he had had an impressive experience at the dialogue. Although Leipzig and Ho Chi Minh City differ in size, both face climate change and the pressures of urban growth.

“It was good that we had time to discuss sustainable development and the issues we both face,” the German representative said.

David was also particularly impressed by the kindness of Ho Chi Minh City residents.

“During the few days I’ve been here, I haven’t met anyone who was unkind. Everyone has been nice and friendly. It’s been a very, very wonderful experience,” he said.

Grant Smith, mayor of Palmerston North, New Zealand, also said he had had a wonderful time and achieved many positive results from the dialogue.

Smith praised Ho Chi Minh City as beautiful. He said more Vietnamese people have been visiting New Zealand, while increasing numbers of New Zealanders have been coming to experience Vietnam.

“We have a memorandum of understanding on education with Ho Chi Minh City that was signed in 2021. We came here to look at how we can progress that and expand into other areas such as trade, logistics and science,” the mayor said.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Concepción Rodríguez, governor of Artemisa Province, Cuba, said Cubans “always feel at home in Vietnam.”

“In my view, among Vietnam’s cities, Ho Chi Minh City is probably where the friendship between Cuban and Vietnamese people is deepest. I thank the city authorities for organizing such an excellent event, which first of all connects cities but also brings the peoples of different countries closer together,” Rodríguez said.

Enai Diamela Palacios Acosta, chairwoman of the People's Council of Santiago de Cuba Province, said her delegation was honored to be invited to Ho Chi Minh City, where the hospitable residents are “very much like Cubans.”

“We have been welcomed very warmly. All the discussions have been positive, and we are leaving with great expectations,” Palacios said.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Loc Ha, permanent vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said the strong presence of international friends demonstrated their desire to strengthen connections, share opportunities and jointly address common challenges facing cities around the world.

Ha said the city’s network of ties with 88 foreign localities and nearly 20 international organizations and partners provided a foundation for expanding its international outreach and participating more deeply in global development and innovation networks.

Ho Chi Minh City leaders emphasized that international relations and integration today are no longer limited to maintaining friendship or expanding international contacts, but have become an important means of development for localities.

In this context, Ho Chi Minh City wants and is ready to play a further pioneering role in piloting, testing and promoting new initiatives, ideas, models and approaches to cooperation with international cities and partners.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Hoang Long said the theme of this year’s Friendship Dialogue demonstrated Ho Chi Minh City’s responsiveness to rapid changes in the international and regional landscape.

The dialogue seeks to turn the city’s network of friendly partners into concrete resources, opportunities and drivers for development, he said.

“This is not only a requirement for Ho Chi Minh City, but also a common concern of many localities in Vietnam and around the world,” Long said.

Building on existing friendly and cooperative relations, the deputy foreign minister called on local governments and Vietnamese and international businesses to take pioneering roles and embrace innovation, fundamentally change their thinking and approaches to cooperation and shift from cooperation to co-creation and from technology transfer to joint development.

The dialogue featured presentations by leaders of international local governments, including Champasak Province in Laos, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Leipzig in Germany and Aichi Prefecture in Japan.