Vietnam wishes to further strengthen friendship and cooperation, including defense ties, with countries in the region and the world, said Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh.  

The General made his statement at his bilateral meetings on June 1 with the Ministers of Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia; the Deputy Defense Ministers of Singapore, Brunei, Russia and the Republic of Korea, the US Pacific Commander and the Vice Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the sidelines of the 12th Shangri-La Dialogue that ended on June 2 in Singapore after three days of working.

Vinh thanked these countries for assisting Vietnamese army in various fields and praised international support to Vietnam’s stance on building a peaceful and stable environment in the region in line with international law. During their meetings, the two sides discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral defense ties on the basis of traditional friendship. They pledged to promote development cooperation to reach common voices on major regional and global issues of mutual concern like peace, maritime security and anti-terrorism. They also exchanged views on regional security situation and reviewed bilateral army relations. Earlier when delivering an important speech the Shangri-La Dialogue, General Vinh, who led a Vietnamese delegation to the event, also emphasized the need to promote defense cooperation for a collective strength to cope with common challenges. Vinh pointed that the trend of cooperation, including that in the Asia-Pacific, is taking place more vigorously than any other regions in the world and has been expanded multilaterally. He considered the enhancement of defense links as one of the key measures to maintain peace, stability and development to meet the aspiration of nearly four billion in the Asia-Pacific region. The General reiterated the request for further cooperation among the Navies, Maritime Polices and Border Guards and for the establishment of the hotline among ASEAN Defense Ministers.

He suggested the ASEAN Ministers of Defense consider the signing of a no-first-use-of-force agreement in order to consolidate the mutual trust among ASEAN countries, saying the experience gained from this will be eventually expanded to the nations of the Asia-Pacific Region.