PANO – Minister of National Defence General Phung Quang Thanh welcomed New Zealand Deputy Secretary of Defence in charge of Policy and Planning, Tony Lynch, in Hanoi on November 6th.

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General Phung Quang Thanh and New Zealand Deputy Secretary of Defence in charge of Policy and Planning, Tony Lynch

At the reception, the Vietnamese general highly valued the outcome of the first Vietnam-New Zealand Defence Dialogue, which took place on November 5th presided by Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh and Mr. Lynch.

General Thanh affirmed that Vietnam has always attached special importance to the comprehensive relationship with New Zealand, including defence cooperation, and underlined the need to uphold the defence dialogue mechanism to promote the mutual understanding and trust, and foster the bilateral defence cooperation.

For his part, Mr. Lynch held that defence cooperation plays an important role in the Vietnam-New Zealand relations and New Zealand is going to provide more training courses for Vietnamese officers, adding that Vietnam and New Zealand also have potential for cooperation in joining UN peacekeeping operations.

Translated by Van Hieu