The Vietnamese delegation was led by Lieutenant General Vu Chien Thang, Director of the Department of Foreign Relations under the Ministry of National Defense.
In his speech, Brigadier General Dato Seri Pahlawan Shahril Anwar bin Haji Ma’ awiah, Permanent Secretary of the Brunei Defense Ministry, underlined that in the context that the region and world have been facing numerous security challenges, the theme “We care, we prepare, we prosper” of the 2021 ASEAN Chairmanship Year reflects the importance of reinforcing defense cooperation to ensure a resilient and prosperous ASEAN.
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Lieutenant General Vu Chien Thang at the event |
To do this, according to the Bruneian officer, regional countries should continue to maintain regional defense cooperation mechanisms with ASEAN playing the central role.
He also took this chance to thank ASEAN member states and the grouping’s partners for their support to build a peaceful and safe ASEAN which treasures people’s health and happiness.
The Bruneian brigadier general believed that the 27 members of the ARF could learn from each other and have opportunities to reinforce their coordination to help the region stay ready and resilient to respond to future challenges, especially the critical impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year.
Given this dialogue’s theme “Emerging technologies and their influences on defense-security,” the Bruneian general said that together with socio-economic benefits, advances in digital technologies have brought about security challenges.
He added that it is necessary to discuss how the opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies can impact defense-security, so that nations can respond to any unprecedented challenges in the digital era.
He expressed his hope that discussions would focus on approaches to not only promote regional defense ties, but also to increase the role of defense mechanisms in ARF such as ARF DOD. Through discussions, he believed regional countries will be more aware of complicated regional and global challenges.
He also took this chance to send deep condolence to Indonesia over the recent submarine sinking and to all ARF member states over the damages caused by COVID-19 and natural disasters.
This year’s dialogue aimed to discuss approaches to narrow the gap in knowledge of emerging technologies between nations, and their influences over defense-security via experience sharing.
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Delegates at the virtual dialogue |
At the dialogue, delegates discussed the use of emerging technologies to achieve security goals and effectively cope with common threats. They also discussed challenges facing each country in responding to emerging technologies and shared their viewpoints on enriching ARF DOD and ensuring ARF DOD’s continuous contributions to regional trust-building.
They agreed on the agenda for the 18th ARF Security-Policy Conference (ASPC-18) which will be held online under the chair of Brunei later this May.
Translated by Mai Huong