HANOI, Vietnam, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Vietnam's president used the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Hanoi to urge continued development and unity for the whole country.
President Nguyen Minh Triet paid lavish praise to the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh and called Hanoi the central point of all Vietnamese at home and abroad.
"All Vietnamese people, at home and abroad, pledge to unite in a determined effort to make the capital more modern, civil and prosperous, and to build the Vietnamese nation into one of peace, independence, unity, democracy and prosperity," Triet said in the keynote address at Sunday's massive parade and rally in the capital.
Vietnam News Service, the official government news agency, said more than 30,000 people attended the parade in person while the rest of the nation watched on television.
"We always respect the contributions of the whole nation to Hanoi as well as those of the capital to the whole nation, which intensifies the spirit 'the whole nation for Hanoi and Hanoi for the whole nation'," Triet said.
