The hand-over ceremony was held after the President arrived in Jakarta to attend the Asia-Africa Summit and the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.The aid was received by Mar'ie Muhammad, President of the Indonesia Red Cross Society in the presence of Indonesian Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsah, and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien.

President Luong, who is Honorary President of the Viet Nam Red Cross, said he was honoured to represent the Vietnamese people and the Viet Nam Red Cross in handing over the relief aid for the Indonesian victims.

"The Vietnamese people were deeply disturbed to learn that the largest earthquake and tsunami of the past several hundred years had brought such tremendous hardship on hundreds of thousands of people, a great of whom were Indonesian people," the President said. "We have acted to share the victims' sufferings out of our traditional compassion for kin and brothers in misfortune."

He went on to say, "In addition to the Vietnamese government's official aid for the tsunami's victims, a campaign was launched nationwide by the Viet Nam Fatherland Front's Central Committee and the Viet Nam Red Cross to raise support for the earthquake and tsunami victims. The campaign quickly received warm response from people from all walks of life, who offered deep sympathy for the victims."

The President said the money and goods raised during the campaign, though not much, reflected the sentiments of millions of Vietnamese people towards the Indonesian people, who have assisted the Vietnamese people whenever they have fallen victim to natural calamities.

"By doing this, we want to affirm that the Vietnamese people will stand shouder to shoulder with the Indonesian people as well as people from the great ASEAN family whenever they are having difficulties. We all want to strengthen the traditional friendship and cooperation with the Indonesian people," President Luong said.

He expressed his belief that the Indonesian people and Government, with their brave and self-reliant spirit as well as the international community's support and assistance, will quickly overcome the consequences of the natural disaster and stabilise their lives and continue building a more prosperous country.