At the meeting, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien stressed that Vietnam and Brunei have many similarities in culture, enjoy good friendship, and are active and responsible members of the ASEAN Community. More than 30 years since the establishment of the diplomatic relations, the Vietnam-Brunei relationship has  constantly developed in many fields.

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Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien (left) and Brunei Deputy Minister of Defense Brigadier General Brui Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Abdul Razak bin Haji Abdul Kadir at the meeting

Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien thanked the Deputy Minister and the Royal Brunei Armed Forces for their interest, support and sending delegations to attend the Vietnam International Defense Expo in December and the 23rd ASEAN Chiefs of Army Multilateral Meeting (ACAMM-23) in November last year. He expressed his delight at the continuous development of the two countries' relations over the past time, especially since the two countries upgraded their bilateral relationship to a comprehensive partnership in March 2019.

Accordingly, the relationship between the two countries has been increasingly enhanced with high trust, while the economic and trade cooperation continued to be promoted. In particular, last year, the two countries organized many meaningful political and diplomatic activities to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Brunei.

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of delegation exchange, naval cooperation, military training and cooperation at multilateral framework.

Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien highly appreciated the cooperation between the two defense ministries in recent years, especially in delegation exchange and training and naval cooperation with practical activities to help improve understanding and mutual trust between the two navies and the two militaries.

In the coming time, the Vietnamese deputy defense minister suggested the two sides continue to effectively implement cooperation contents on the basis of the signed memorandum of understanding on bilateral defense cooperation. The contents include delegation exchange at all levels, training, exchange of specialized experiences, naval cooperation, air force information sharing, coordination in search and rescue, and so on. At the same time, given the establishment of a defense policy dialogue mechanism at the deputy ministerial level, the two sides suggested  to study, develop and sign a new memorandum of understanding on bilateral defense cooperation or sign an international defense cooperation plan every three years or other appropriate instruments to further promote defense cooperation between the two countries.

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Delegates of the two sides in a joint photo

In turn, the Deputy Defense Minister of Brunei expressed his delight at seeing recent developments of the bilateral defense cooperation. He wished that the two sides would continue to strengthen the defense ties in accordance with the orientations determined by the two countries' senior leaders, and at the same time support each other within the framework of multilateral forums to which both sides are members. The two sides should strengthen consultancy so that they can make practical advice and suggestions to promote bilateral defense relations, while maintaining and expanding patrols and joint training programs between the two navies.

Translated by Trung Thanh