His New Year cards went to Xi Jinping, general secretary of the C.C., Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, first secretary of the C.C., Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Republic of Cuba, and Raul Castro Ruz, Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the C.C., Lao People's Revolutionary Party and president of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the C.C., Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Bashar Al-Assad, president of the Syrian Arab Republic.