Friendship blossomed between the two cosmonauts aboard the spacecraft“Soiuz-37”, which left the earth’s orbit on July 23, 1980 and returnedeight days later.
Pham Tuan expressed his honour atbeing the first Vietnamese to fly into outer space and remembered howwarmly he was welcomed back by his fellow countrymen.
Meanwhile, Gorbatko told the participants that he was the 21stRussian cosmonaut and 43 rd person across the world ever to visit outerspace.
His trip with Pham Tuan, under theInterkosmos space programme, was the third flight in his career as anastronaut, Gorbatko added.
On the occasion, the twoastronauts expressed their wish that the younger generations developthe determination and confidence to make their dreams come true.
Their meeting marked the 35th anniversary of the joint Vietnam-Soviet Union flight into space.-VNA