PANO - The 13th ASEAN Chiefs of Defence Forces Informal Meeting (ACDFIM-13,) themed "Promoting Defence Cooperation for a Dynamic ASEAN Community," was officially kicked off on March 14th in Vientiane, Laos.

General Do Ba Ty, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, led the Vietnamese mission to join the event.

Representatives of ASEAN countries posing for a joint photo at the opening ceremony. (Photo: Bao Trung)

Addressing the opening session of the meeting, Lt. Gen. Suvon Luongbunmi, Chief-of-the-General Staff of the Lao People's Army (LPA) and ACDFIM-13's Chairman, stressed that the meeting is an important event as it took place after the foundation of the ASEAN Community on December 31st 2015. It is essential for the peace, stability and security of the region, especially when regional and global security has witnessed complicated and unpredictable developments, he added.

In addition, he also held that the meeting would bring opportunities to promote mutual understanding and truth as well as military cooperation among ASEAN countries in the time to come, contributing to coping well with traditional and non-traditional security threats in the future.

After the opening ceremony, delegates were briefed on the results of the 13th  ASEAN Military Intelligence Informal Meeting (AMIIM-13) and the 6th ASEAN Military Operations Informal Meeting (AMOIM-6).

Translated by Anh Tien