On the occasion, Senior Captain Nguyen Viet Anh, Deputy Chief of Staff of Naval Region 2, head of the Vietnamese delegation, had an interview with the People’s Army Newspaper’s reporter.
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Sr. Cap. Nguyen Viet Anh (left) and VPN’s officers talking with Commander Nick Doyle, Commander of Mobile Sea Training of Royal Australian Navy, on Ship 18 on September 13. |
Talking about the significance of the voyage for Naval Region 2, Sr. Cap. Nguyen Viet Anh underscored that this was the first time that VPA’s ship had docked at an Australian dock to join Exercise Kakadu and also the first time that Naval Region 2’s ship had gone abroad to undertake defense external missions. This was a great opportunity for Naval Region 2 to affirm its capacity in a new mission.
The voyage aimed to implement the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense’s direction on international integration and defense external affairs; enhance collaboration ability in responding to common challenges on maritime security; as well as reinforce and further accelerate the existing good friendship and cooperative relations among militaries and navies of Vietnam and Australia, and other foreign countries inside and outside the region.
Sr. Cap. Nguyen Viet Anh stated that Kakadu is a multilateral naval exercise hosted by Australia every two years since 1993. This year’s exercise included non-combat activities related to unplanned comprehensive combat operations at sea in the spirit of cooperation and mutual trust among participating partners.
Adhering to the non-combat principle when joining Exercise Kakadu, the Vietnamese delegation proactively proposed additional non-combat exercises with other ships. Activities at Kakadu were divided into two phases, dockside activities and activities at sea. On the dock, Vietnamese officers and soldiers actively participated in activities, including planning for contents of rescue operations, sea replenishment, and ship damage repair. In addition, the enthusiastic participation in sports and cultural exchange activities of Vietnamese naval troops was also highly appreciated by the organizing committee. The banquet held by Ship 18 with the participation of international friends and overseas Vietnamese left a deep impression on their minds.
The at-sea phase of the exercise, including field contents, offered an opportunity for the Vietnamese delegation to improve training activities and raise troops’ expertise and measures to collaborate with ships of other navies. Apart from aerial formation photography, Ship 18 and French Navy’s FSN Auguste Benebig practiced the contents of approaching and inspecting foreign ships and ship’s damage repair at sea; supply at sea, and towing distressed vessels. Ship 18 and the Austrian side also conducted vertical replenishment at sea; shared experience in rescuing people who fell into the water, lifting and lowering boats while the ship was on the move; and sent young officers to study and observe other countries’ ships, to name but a few.
Regarding the preparations for the mission, Sr. Cap. Nguyen Viet Anh shared that under the close leadership and direction of leaders of the Command of Naval Service and the instruction and support from MND and Naval Service’s functional agencies, Naval Region 2 was aware of the significance of defense external missions. Therefore, the region made thorough preparations for personnel, vehicles, and technical and logistics equipment, while closely coordinating with relevant agencies to complete the mission as planned, obtaining set targets and ensuring absolute safety in all aspects.
The region focused on training officers to be proficient in teamwork, maintain working principles but be flexible in handling situations, promptly report and propose solutions, and record and learn experiences. In addition, the region carefully prepared human resources with professional capacity and good foreign language skills. As for Sr. Cap. Nguyen Viet Anh, although he has been trained and gone on business trips many times in Australia, as well as has much experience in working with many countries, he still has to review all acquired knowledge from all previous courses and spent a lot of time studying documents related to multilateral maritime operations, search and rescue, sea replenishment, and ship rescue to ensure his confidence when leading Vietnamese troops to join training contents at sea.
Taking part in Exercise Kakadu 2024 was a valuable opportunity for Naval Region 2 to combine the mission with long-distance sea training to improve command capabilities, coordination, combat readiness, and mastery of weapons and technical equipment during long maritime operations. The acquired experience learned from this voyage has helped Naval Region 2 not only successfully fulfill the assigned defense external tasks but also have a great significance for combat readiness training activities of Naval Region 2 in particular and the Vietnam People's Navy in general, thereby affirming Naval Region 2’s capacity to undertake defense external tasks with higher requirements in the time to come.
Translated by Quynh Oanh