VPAF makes preparations for AACC-7

PANO - The 7th ASEAN Air Chiefs Conference (AACC-7), which is scheduled to be held in Hanoi on August 20th, is a good chance for Vietnam to confirm its contribution to ASEAN defence cooperation. On the occasion, People’s Army Newspaper’s reporters had an interview with Commander of the Vietnam People’s Air Force (VPAF), Lieutenant-General Le Huu Duc.

Lieutenant General Le Huu Duc.

PANO - The 7^th ASEAN Air Chiefs Conference (AACC-7), which is scheduled to be held in Hanoi on August 20^th, is a good chance for Vietnam to confirm its contribution to ASEAN defence cooperation. On the occasion, People’s Army Newspaper’s reporters had an interview with Commander of the Vietnam People’s Air Force (VPAF), Lieutenant-General Le Huu Duc.

Reporter: Could you, please, tell us about AACC in general and AACC-7 in particular and the role of VPAF in the meeting?

Air Force Commander: As Vietnam takes the Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2010, it is responsible for the organisation of a number of international conferences, including those which are defence-related. This is a tough but also proud responsibility of Vietnam and its defence organisation.

In fact, one of the key contents of ASEAN cooperation is defence and security cooperation. So far, Vietnam has successfully organised all the meetings within the ASEAN Chairmanship responsibilities, the meetings within ARF and other meetings beyond its responsibility as the ASEAN-chairing nation. AACC is one of formal meetings that ASEAN chair-nations regularly hold.

AACC has experienced 6 meetings in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Brunei and VPAF is proud to hold AACC-7 for the first time.

Under the State and Defence Policies on International and Regional Cooperation, VPAF is ready to cooperate and share experiences with regional air forces in training, flight safety, natural disaster victims search and rescue, natural disaster reliefs and so on.

Reporter: What do you think about the meaning of Vietnam’s AACC-7 organisation?

Air Force Commander: AACC-7 is titled “Enhancing cooperation of ASEAN Air Forces for peace, stability and development”. With the hosting of the conference, Vietnam will propose several initiatives in an effort to specify and realise cooperation between ASEAN Air Forces, as well as suggest some directions for regional air force cooperation in the future. In addition, VPAF will have more experiences in international cooperation via the organisation of AACC-7 and this will also be a valuable chance for VPAF to further build and improve its capability in accordance with new situations and tasks, as well as exchange advanced technology with other regional partners.

Reporter: Could you tell us Vietnam’s preparations for AACC-7?

Air Force Commander: We started the preparations a year ago. During AACC-6 in Brunei, we sent a group of officers to the country to learn about the organisation. We also studied documents from previous AACCs to assure the continuity of AACCs and to ensure that proposed cooperation forms should be suitable with regional air force organisations.

So far, we have made the best preparation for the opening of AACC-7 with the supports from other involved bodies under the Defence Ministry.

Reporter: General, could you disclose some ideas and contributions that the host will put forward at AACC-7?

Air Force Commander: Vietnam will actually give a number of ideas at AACC-7. For example, VPAF will propose an exchange of young officers between regional air force organisations. To realise it, we have studied and drafted all related documents, including the goals, principles, capacity and forms of activities with the exchange. The documents in English were then sent to other ASEAN members before AACC-7.

Reporter: Thank you for the interview.