During the meeting, Dr. Aaron Pegram, head of the Australian unit, affirmed Australia’s commitment to working more effectively with Vietnam in the search and collection of remains of fallen Vietnamese soldiers, contributing to the development of bilateral relations.

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During the working session

Gen. Minh stated that Vietnam still has around 175,000 soldiers fallen in war whose remains have yet to be verified or located. This is a pressing social issue for Vietnam, but the work has become increasingly challenging over time.

The Vietnamese general asked the Australian side to continue collecting, sharing, and providing information and documents related to Vietnamese soldiers who died, went missing, or disappeared during wartime. He also proposed sharing experience and applying modern information technologies in research, analysis, classification, data extraction, and archival management to support Vietnam’s efforts in this mission.

The same day, the Vietnamese delegation visited and worked with the Australian War Memorial. Gen. Minh requested the Memorial to extract information related to Vietnamese soldiers who died or went missing during wartime from its archives for the Office of Steering Committee 515. He also called for greater communication and mobilization of Australian organizations and individuals to collect and share information, documents, and keepsakes related to Vietnamese martyrs and their burial sites to support Vietnam’s ongoing search and verification efforts.

By Le Chuan (from Canberra, Australia)

Translated by Mai Huong