Minister of National Defence General Phan Van Giang (L) meets Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Tea Banh (Photo: VNA) The two ministers discussed a number of regional and globalissues of shared concern, and sought ways to further promote their partnershipin the future.
They agreed to foster the cooperation of the two Defence Ministries with relevant agencies of both sides to organise defencecollaboration activities, thus making contributions to the success of the Vietnam-Cambodia,Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Year 2022 and the relations between the twomilitaries.
General Giang congratulated the Ministry of National Defence of Cambodia forsuccessfully hosting the ASEAN military-defence meetings for 2022, andexpressed his belief that the ADMM Retreat and the ninth ADMM Plus will also bea success, making important contributions to maintaining the central role ofthe ASEAN.
General Giang also invited General Tea Banh to visit Vietnam for the International Defence Expo that Vietnam will host for the first time inDecember.
Minister of National Defence General Phan Van Giang (R) meets with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe (Photo: VNA) For his part, Wei affirmed that defence partnership is one of the important factors helping enhance the friendship and cooperation between the twoParties and States, benefiting people of both sides as well as peace,stability, cooperation and development in each country, the region and theworld.
He said that China paid great attention to the visit by Party General SecretaryNguyen Phu Trong earlier this month, considering it as a special event forthe two sides as well as the Vietnam-China relations.
At the meeting, the two ministers agreed that despite COVID-19 impacts,defence cooperation between the two countries has been maintained with flexibleand effective forms.
Regarding the future cooperation orientations, they underlined the need to increase the exchange of delegations at alllevels, especially at the high level, and the effective implementation of existingcooperation mechanisms such as the defence strategy dialogue at the DeputyMinisterial level, the border defence friendship exchange, as well ascollaboration in Party and political affairs, and information exchange and cooperationbetween armed forces, academies, and schools. They pledged to continue tocoordinate with and support each other at multilateral military and defence forums.
The two ministers also agreed to deal with internationalissues related to the two countries with a strategic view for common interestand through peaceful measures in line with international law.
General Giang affirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of settling disputes throughpeaceful measures in the spirit of respecting each other's rights and interests, and coping with sea-related issues through peaceful measures inconformity with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, as well as the promotion of negotiation mechanisms on the sea and discussions on development cooperation. He also stressed thesignificance of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea(DOC), and the building of a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in theEast Sea that is suitable to international law, including the UNCLOS 1982.
The two ministers also concurred to foster defence cooperation to realisecollaboration contents reached by high-ranking leaders of the two sides during PartyGeneral Secretary Trong’s visit, thus boosting the Vietnam-China comprehensivestrategic cooperative partnership in a healthy and stable manner.
The ADMM Retreat opened in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on November22./.
VNA
