October 05, 2019 | 19:51 (GMT+7)
Defense Minister welcomes senior Indian official
PANO – General Ngo Xuan Lich, member of the Politburo, Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission and Defense Minister, received Ajay Kumar, Indian Defense Secretary in Hanoi on October 4.
Secretary Kumar was on a working trip to Vietnam to co-chair the 12th Vietnam-India defense policy dialogue, which took place in Ho Chi Minh City on October 3.
At the reception, the Indian official thanked General Lich for the warm welcome and briefed him on the outcomes of the dialogue.
In turn, the host applauded the results of the 12th Vietnam-India defense policy dialogue and believed that gains made by both sides at the event would contribute to expanding the bilateral defense relations in particular and the Vietnam-India comprehensive strategic partnership in general.
General Lich valued the cooperation between the two countries and the two Defense Ministries in regional and international forums over the past time. He expressed his thanks to India for its support for Vietnam's run for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council (UNSC) in the 2020-2021 period, and affirmed Vietnam’s support for India’s “Act East” policy.
According to the Vietnamese Defense Minister, when Vietnam takes the Chair of ASEAN in 2020, the Vietnamese Defense Ministry will host a number of military-defense conferences, including the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+). He wanted India to send delegations to attend these events.
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Secretary Kumar presents souvenir to General Ngo Xuan Lich |
Both General Lich and Secretary Kumar voiced pleasure at the two countries’ defense cooperation achievements over the past years in high-ranking delegation exchanges, annual deputy ministerial-level defense policy dialogues, and cooperation between arms and services.
General Lich emphasized that in the coming time, the two sides should continue to uphold the annual deputy ministerial-level defense policy dialogue and other existing cooperation mechanisms while closely working together to build new cooperation mechanisms in order to contribute to effectively realizing agreements signed by the two countries’ senior leaders and Defense Ministries as well as to expanding the cooperation between the two militaries.
Translated by Van Hieu