The Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien attended the event.

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Vietnam's Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien (left) attends the virtual meeting.

In his opening remarks, the Bruneian general welcomed the presence of delegates from ASEAN member states and representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat. He emphasized that while facing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to further boost regional defense cooperation to build a peaceful and safe ASEAN which treasures people’s health. 

In his speech, Robert Matheus Michael Tene, Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Political Security Community, who took office this February, congratulated the Bruneian Ministry of Defense on successfully performing its ASEAN Chair in defense channel. He also highly valued Vietnam’s achievements in leading ASEAN to overcome a challenging year in 2020 as ASEAN chair and called on its member countries to strengthen defense ties to contribute to regional and global peace and security.

At the meeting, delegates were updated on the outcomes of the cooperation among ASEAN nations over the past time, the results of the recent meeting of the ADSOM Working Group and the 18th ASEAN Chiefs of Defense Forces’ Meeting (ACDFM-18).

They also looked into documents discussed at the recently concluded ADSOM WG meeting and agreed to submit them to the ADSOM. The documents included concept documents and other documents to be introduced at the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting, draft joint statements of the ADMM-15 and the eighth ADMM+. They also approved the preparations for ADSOM+, ADMM-15 and the eighth ADMM+ and discussed proposals from ASEAN’s partners, such as the organization of informal ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus 1 and ASEAN - Russia Naval Exercise.

Translated by Mai Huong