Representatives of the two delegations shaking hands before the meeting. Photo: British Embassy in Hanoi.
PANO – The Defence Working Group of the United Kingdom (UK)’s Ministry of Defence and Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence on January 8th held the third annual meeting to discuss their bilateral defence cooperation in 2015, announced by the UK Embassy in Hanoi.

At the discussion, the two sides agreed that the bilateral defence cooperation would obtain more achievements this year through exchanges of many senior level delegations from the two defence ministries. These visits will boost the bilateral cooperation programs and create various opportunities for the two ministries to further discuss strategic issues.

Besides, the two sides also pointed out that boosting defence industry cooperation and the investment in training courses for officers of the Vietnam People’s Army is also a major part at the talks. Accordingly, English language-training programs funded by the UK’s Ministry of Defence and carried out by the British Council will be increased by 300 percent through a training program scheduled in this March.

In addition, the UK’s ministry pledged to offer training courses at Defence Academy this summer to two Vietnamese senior officers.

Finally, they also agreed to boost cooperation in many other areas, including the exchange on bathymetric information, geospatial interaction, and cyber security.

Translated by Anh Tien