Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao, Deputy Chief of the General Staff (GS) of the Viet Nam People’s Army, attended the event on behalf of the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense.
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Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao, Ambassador Korhan Kemik and Colonel Ozgur Bulent in a joint photo |
Speaking at the reception, Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao extended his best wishes to the Turkish ambassador and defense attaché, and the Turkish Armed Forces. He noted that over 104 years of development, the Turkish Armed Forces have established themselves as an elite and modern force, playing a key role in safeguarding national sovereignty while actively contributing to regional and global peace and stability.
Reviewing nearly five decades of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Türkiye since 1978, Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao said the bilateral friendship has continued to grow across many fields, including politics, diplomacy, economy, trade, education, and culture. The two countries share similarities in their histories of national construction and defense, as well as rich cultural traditions. In the current regional and global situations, Viet Nam and Türkiye also share a common vision of a world of peace, stability, cooperation, and development.
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Turkish Ambassador to Viet Nam Korhan Kemik speaks at the reception. |
The GS’s deputy chief highlighted the mutual support provided by the governments, militaries, and peoples of the two countries in overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, particularly following the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and Typhoon Yagi in Viet Nam in 2024. He said such assistance demonstrated that bilateral ties are built on not only shared interests, but also sincere friendship.
On that basis, defense cooperation between Viet Nam and Türkiye has become an important pillar of bilateral relations. The official visit to Viet Nam by Turkish Minister of National Defense Yasar Guler in September 2025 opened up new opportunities for cooperation, including completing the bilateral cooperation framework, establishing a deputy ministerial-level Defense Policy Dialogue, and expanding cooperation in the defense industry, training, and experience sharing. The two defense ministries’ deployment of resident defense attachés since 2025 has also made an important contribution to promoting bilateral defense ties.
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Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao and delegates attend the reception. |
Lieutenant General Le Quang Dao expressed his hope that, with the political determination of senior leaders of both countries and the efforts of the Turkish Ambassador and Defense Attaché, bilateral defense cooperation would continue to deepen and become more substantive. He said this would further strengthen the friendship between the two countries, serve the interests of their peoples, and contribute to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.
Translated by Minh Anh