PANO – A mission of the Vietnam People’s Army, led by Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, has attended the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials’ Meeting Plus (ADSOM+) opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 14th.

Apart from military delegations of 10 ASEAN member countries, the meeting drew the participation of ASEAN’s dialogue partners of Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the US, and representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat.

At the meeting, the delegates were briefed on the ASEAN’s recent development and outcomes of the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials' Meeting-Plus Working Group Meeting (ADSOM WG+) organized on February 24th in Johor, Malaysia.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh (first from right) at the 2015 ADSOM+. Photo: vietnamplus

Addressing the event, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh held that the framework of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM+) plays an important role towards the formation of the ASEAN Community by the end of this year.

All ASEAN member countries and ASEAN’s dialogue partners have been attaching much importance to ADMM+ because not only the coming ASEAN Community’s formation but also of the increasing traditional and non-traditional security threats in the region also need the joint cooperation of all countries to deal with, he added.

He suggested ADMM+ member states to further cooperate together for the sake of each country and also for peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region and the rest of the world.

Besides, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh informed the participants Vietnam’s achievements over the past time in order to realize its commitments under the ADMM+ framework. Notably, Vietnam has sent two officers to the UN Mission in South Sudan, and will deploy more staff officers for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and a level-2 field hospital and an engineering team for the UN peacekeeping operations. In addition, the Experts’ Working Group of Vietnam and India has launched some cooperation program to carry out the Humanitarian Mine Action initiated by Vietnam, including the upcoming bomb and mine clearance exercise.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh meets with the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia Amy Searight

At this forum, delegates from participating countries expressed their opinions to address recent disputes in the region.

Admiral Li Ji from China held that 2014 saw the increasing threats like natural disasters and territorial disputes and that China hoped regional countries to well implement the ASEAN-China Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and conclude a Code of Conduct (COC).

Meanwhile, Head of the Japanese delegation Hideshi Tokuchi, also the Deputy Minister of Defence, put forward an establishment of a hotline between Japan and China to tackle the two sides’ disputes at sea.

Major General Yoedhi Swastanto, Head of the Indonesian delegation, highly appreciated the importance of navigation security and urged regional nations to seriously implement the DOC and set up a direct communication line to deal with their disputes, towards the COC establishment.

Dr. Amy Searight, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia, expressed worries about recent illegal activities in the region and supported team approaches to resolving disputes peacefully, based on international law, equality and mutual respect.

During the meeting, working groups of an ASEAN member country and an ASEAN’s full dialogue partner in turn informed the progress of six priority areas for cooperation under the ADMM+ framework, namely the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Maritime Security (MS), Military Medicine (MM), Counter Terrorism (CT), Peacekeeping Operations (PKO), and Humanitarian Mine Action initiated by Vietnam.

The participants also discussed the Joint Statement of the third ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) and regional and international issues of mutual concern, and listened to a report of the ASEAN Regional Forum Defence Officials' Dialogue (ARF DoD), organized in Malacca, Malaysia between November 30th and December 1st 2014.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh and the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia Amy Searight met and reviewed bilateral defence cooperation over the past years and proposed measures to boost the cooperation in the future.

The 2015 ADSOM+ was wrapped up on the same day.

Translated by Pham Huy

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