The U.S. will support Vietnam’s commitments to protecting peace in the region and in the world, Ambassador Ted Osius has said. Ambassador Osius made the statement on Monday while attending a five-day international workshop that kicked off in Hanoi the same day, focusing on the deployment of UN peacekeeping operations. The event is jointly organized by the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center and the Global Peace Operations Initiative. The U.S. will coordinate with Vietnam to establish a training center and provide technical assistance for the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, Ambassador Osius said. The Vietnam-U.S. cooperation in United Nations peacekeeping operations demonstrates the expansion of their cooperative ties from bilateral aspects to regional and global issues, he added. He also mentioned many peacekeeping-related activities where the U.S. could assist Vietnam, such as sharing experience, training personnel, teaching the English langue to Vietnamese peacekeeping forces, building peacekeeping centers and coordinating within the UN framework. In talking with the media on the sidelines of the seminar, Ambassador Osius said the U.S. is very happy to cooperate with Vietnam in peacekeeping, which showed that the relationship between the two countries has developed vigorously from bilateral ties to regional and international levels. He also said Washington and Hanoi will discuss defense industries at a dialogue on defense policies in September. Deputy Minister of Defense Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh also told the seminar that under an MoU signed between the U.S. and Vietnam during the recent Washington, D.C. visit by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the U.S. will support the Southeast Asian country in training soldiers and deploying a level-2 field hospital and sapper units in UN peacekeeping missions. Washington will also support Hanoi in building facilities at the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center and purchasing equipment for training there, Sr. Lt. Gen. Vinh said. These works are expected to be implemented in 2016, Sr. Lt. Gen. Vinh said, adding that Vietnamese sapper units will leave Vietnam for their peacekeeping duties by late next year. Colonel Hoang Kim Phung, director of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, told the workshop that Vietnam has previously sent military officials to South Sudan and the Central African Republic to participate in peacekeeping operations. Vietnam will attend a summit on peacekeeping to be held in New York on September 28, 2015, a source at the seminar said.
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