CAIRO, August 26, 2018 – Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang has expressed admiration of the civilisation of Ancient Egypt and noted that Pharaonic monuments have for ages remained unrepeatable. In remarks he made as he attended a son et lumiere show on the shores of the Sacred Lake at the world-famous Karnak Temple in Luxor on Saturday night, President Quang hailed the elegance and grandness of Pharaonic monuments which he described as having remained unrepeatable over ages, per the Middle East News Agency (MENA). Luxor City, home of quite a number of dazzling monuments of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation, was the Vietnamese leader's first destination in his current 4-day-long visit to Egypt. President Sisi is due to receive President Quang in Cairo on Monday and the two leaders will then hold summit talks on ways to achieve the furtherance of bilateral relations. The Egyptian and Vietnamese leaders will look into ways of expanding co-operation between the two countries especially including the bolstering of trade exchanges and investments, Presidency Spokesman Bassam Radi said in statement to ExtraNews TV channel on Sunday. The two leaders, he added, will speak to the media at a joint press conference. President Quang's current visit to Egypt comes at an invitation that President Sisi extended to him last September when he paid the first ever visit by an Egyptian leader to Hanoi. Accompanying President Quang is a high-level delegation of Vietnamese officials. Following the sound and light show at the Karnak Temple's Sacred Lake, the Vietnamese president presented a Lotus flower painting as a gift to the area's antiquities officials, the news agency said in a dispatch filed from Luxor. The Lotus flower is one of the symbols of the civilisation of Ancient Egypt and is also Vietnam's national plant, the news agency added. For their part, the staff of the Sound and Light show organising company presented crystal ball as a memorial gift to the Vietnamese leader, MENA said in its coverage of President Quang's visit to Luxor. Shortly after flying in to Luxor City on Saturday, President Quang and his accompanying delegation toured the monument-rich area on the River Nile's western bank, including the Valley of Kings and Queens, Queen Hatshepsut's tomb, Queen Nefertari's tomb, King Tutankhamen tomb and the Deir el-Bahari area. During that tour, the Vietnamese president expressed gratification over visiting those sites and called upon the people of Vietnam to visit such fantastic antiquities, the news agency added in its report.
