Tokyo (VNA) – The 6th Vietnam-Japandefence policy dialogue took place in Tokyo on July 4 under the chair ofVietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh and Japanese DeputyDefence Minister Ro Manabe.

Deputy Minister Manabe affirmed that his countryalways attaches importance to Vietnam’s role in the region, and it wants toenhance the two countries’ cooperation, including in defence.

Vinh said Vietnam and Japan share manysimilarities and mutual trust and have cooperated in many fields. Thatcooperation will contribute to the maintenance of independence, sovereignty anddevelopment of each country as well as peace, stability and prosperity in theAsian-Pacific region, thus benefiting people of both nations.

He said the 6th defence policy dialogue was heldin an important point of time which was after a State visit to Japan byPresident Tran Dai Quang in May 2018 and an official trip to the country byDefence Minister Ngo Xuan Lich one month earlier.

This is a chance for the two sides to discussmeasures to realise the common perceptions reached by the countries’ leaders onenhancing defence cooperation, he noted.

The deputy ministers said on the basis of thememorandum of understanding on bilateral defence cooperation and exchangesigned in October 2011 by the Vietnamese and Japanese ministries of defence andeffective bilateral cooperation mechanisms, the two sides’ cooperation hascontinued to make fruitful and substantive strides as seen through mutualvisits at all levels, exchanges between their air and naval forces, personneltraining, and participation in United Nations peacekeeping activities.

However, these cooperation outcomes have yet tomatch the two sides’ potential and expectation, they said.

Basing on the signed cooperation documents,especially the Joint Vision Statement on Japan-Vietnam Defence Cooperationtowards the next decade between the two defence ministries inked last April,the officials agreed that stronger efforts will be made to strengthen the defenceties and turn them into an important pillar in the countries’ extensivestrategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia.

The officials also concurred in increasingall-level delegation exchanges, promoting the quality of the defence policy dialoguemechanism, and organising consultations between the two countries’ naval,ground and air forces to boost result-oriented cooperation and mutual trust.They will also step up coordination and mutual support at defence-securitymechanisms and multilateral forums, while bolstering collaboration in militarymedicine, cyber security, defence industry, UN peacekeeping activities, marinesecurity, and search and rescue.

The Japanese Ministry of Defence voiced itssupport for Vietnam’s efforts to address unexploded ordnance and dioxinconsequences left from the wartime, adding that it will soon carry outprogrammes to assist improving Vietnam’s capacity in this field. 

At the dialogue, the officials exchanged viewson world and regional issues of shared concern, agreeing that peace,cooperation and development is the common trend of all countries at present,and that all disputes and disagreements need to be resolved through peacefuldialogue, on the basis on international law, and without using force orthreatening to use force.

Also on July 4, Deputy Minister Vinh paid acourtesy call to Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera.

During his visit, Vinh also had meetings withJapanese Deputy Foreign Minister Kazuyuki Nakane, Deputy Secretary General ofJapan’s National Security Secretariat Nobukatsu Kanehara, and VicePresident of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) EjimaShinya.-VNA