The statement was made by Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien during an interview granted to the People’s Army Newspaper ahead of the first exchange.
Talking about the significance of the border friendship exchange activities between Vietnam and its neighboring countries with shared borderlines, towards the bilateral defense cooperation in particular and bilateral relations in general, Gen. Chien underscored that the event not only is a border external activity, but also holds political importance, contributing to promoting political trust while building the borderline of peace, solidarity, cooperation and development.
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Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien |
The border exchange mechanism was first implemented between Vietnam and China in 2014 and then multiplied with Cambodia and Laos via practical contents, becoming effective cooperation model between the Vietnamese Defense Ministry as well as Vietnam People’s Army and other neighboring countries with shared borderlines.
So far, Vietnam has successfully launched border defense friendship exchanges with China seven times, and Laos and Cambodia once; together with three times of Friendship Border Exchange, three times of Border Exchange at the level of the Vietnam Border Guard Command, and four times of the Exchange at the level of the provincial Border Guard Command.
The success of the exchanges has proved the practical effectiveness of the model, which plays an important role in the bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and neighboring countries. They also affirm the high determination of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Ministry of National Defense, border localities, people and border protection forces of Vietnam and neighboring countries in boosting solidarity, friendship and cooperation, thereby deepening bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and the countries and bolstering political trust, especially contributing to firmly protecting national sovereignty in border areas.
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Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien and the delegation inspect the preparations for the first Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia border defense friendship exchange on November 20. |
Following the successful organization of the Vietnam - Laos and Vietnam - Cambodia border defense friendship exchanges over the past time, the three countries will continue to shake hands to conduct the first border defense friendship exchange among the three countries at the defense-minister level.
Underscoring the special significance of the event, which would pave the way for boosting defense cooperation in general, and border protection and management in particular, Gen. Chien noted the due care of the CMC, the Ministry of National Defense, as well as functional forces of the participating countries.
Accordingly, the upcoming event will be held in the shared border areas of the three countries in the provinces of Kon Tum (Vietnam), Attapeu (Laos), and Ratanakiri (Cambodia) via many meaningful activities, such as saluting and painting of the sovereign marker by three defense ministers; the joint patrol and checking of the marker at the border junction of the three countries by border protection forces of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; joint military medical exercise among three militaries; the inauguration of the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Friendship Cultural House in Vietnam and other constructions in Laos and Cambodia; the three defense ministers’ visit and gift presentation to Be Van Dan Primary School in Po Y commune, Kon Tum province; providing free health check-ups and medicines to border people; granting scholarships to border students; the handover of breeding cows to disadvantaged households in border areas; the annual meeting of the three defense ministers; and the signing of cooperation agreements.
He expressed his belief that on the basis of the close coordination among participating forces and thorough preparations, the exchange would be a success, contributing to fostering cooperation among border protection forces, economic development, and people-to-people exchange, while raising local authorities’ and public awareness of border protection, so as to build the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia borderline of peace, friendship, stability, cooperation and development. It also spreads the message of solidarity, friendship and mutual support among the three governments, militaries, and peoples, paving the way to political trust strengthening and concretizing common perception reached by the three state leaders at the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia summit meeting last September in Hanoi.
Translated by Minh Anh