Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and the US convened adefence policy dialogue in Hanoi on October 4, discussing measures to enhancethe effectiveness of bilateral defence cooperation.

The dialogue took place under the chair ofVietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinhand US Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asian and PacificSecurity Affairs Randall Schriver.

Deputy Minister Vinh said the two countries havebeen witnessing strong and substantive strides in their defence ties. Hethanked the US Government and Department of Defence for actively supportingVietnam with equipment and training to help it deploy the first Level-2 fieldhospital to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Reviewing the outcomes attained in the cooperationto settle war consequences, he said this will remain an important cooperationfield between Vietnam and the US, as well as between the two militaries in thetime ahead.

For his part, Schriver congratulated Vietnam ondeploying the field hospital to the UN mission in South Sudan. He affirmed thatthe US Department of Defence is ready to continue cooperating with andassisting Vietnam in this area.

At the dialogue, the two sides looked back onbilateral defence ties and discussed ways to promote this collaboration in linewith the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding for Advancing Bilateral DefenceCooperation, the 2015 Joint Vision Statement on Defence Relations, the Plan ofAction for Defence Cooperation for 2018 – 2020, as well as the two ministries’high-level agreements.

The officials looked into measures to improvethe effectiveness of cooperation in such fields as war aftermath settlement,search and rescue, disaster aid, and UN peacekeeping missions. They also exchangedideas on a cooperation and coordination plan when Vietnam holds the ASEAN Chairin 2020.

International and regional issues of sharedconcern were also discussed at the event.

Also on October 4, Defence Minister Gen. NgoXuan Lich had a meeting with Assistant Secretary Schriver.

The minister expressed his delight at theenhanced bilateral defence cooperation which, he said, has greatly contributedto the two countries’ comprehensive partnership.

He said on the basis of the dialogue’s outcomes,the two ministries should make stronger efforts to develop defence ties in amore result-oriented, practical and effective manner, especially in addressingwar consequences and sharing experiences in UN peacekeeping activities,manpower training, military medicine, and humanitarian aid.- VNA