PANO – The 6th Vietnam-China Defense Strategic Dialogue at the deputy defense minister level opened on November 4 afternoon in Chengdu city, China. Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, and Chinese Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department under the Central Military Commission, Admiral Sun Jianguo co-chaired the event.

Addressing the dialogue, Admiral Sun Jianguo stated that the 6th Vietnam-China Defense Strategic Dialogue at the deputy defense minister level was held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Scene of the dialogue

Since then the two sides has inherited and expanded the long-lasting neighboring relations, which had been fostered by leaders of the two countries, he said.

The head of the Chinese delegation expressed delight at recent positive developments in bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh pointed to the fact that, although the Vietnam-China relationship sometimes experienced ups and downs, all complexity and difficulties could be overcome, bringing mutual benefits to the two nations, as the two Parties and States then had political resolve to deal with differences and disputes, and the two armies had right awareness of the issues and situations.

The two high-ranking defense officials expressed pleasure at the expansion and effectiveness of the bilateral defense cooperation, contributing significantly to the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

Since the 5th Defense Strategic Dialogue of this kind held in Vietnam, cooperation between the two armies has seen good outcomes. The two sides often exchanged high-ranking visits, promoted cooperation on education and training and navies, put the hotline between the two defense ministers in operation, shared experience in UN peacekeeping operations, and especially held the Vietnam-China Border Defense Friendship Exchange.

The two sides agreed to continue the momentum of bilateral cooperation and to expand bilateral cooperation on other areas, such as press and media exchange, defense industry, military medicine, search and rescue, Chinese language training for Vietnamese officers and Vietnamese language training for Chinese officers.

The two sides agreed to entrust relevant defense agencies to consider the signing of a memorandum of understanding on Vietnam-China defense cooperation vision, and the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the operational mechanism of the Vietnam-China Border Defense Friendship Exchange.

The two high-ranking defense officials shared the view that the two sides should step up careful preparation for the upcoming Vietnam-China Border Defense Friendship Exchange in the beginning of 2017.

They also expressed wish that the Defense Strategic Institute of Vietnam and the Military Science Institute of China will soon conduct  the large-scale research project “Collection of documents and remembrances on the solidarity and friendship between Vietnamese and Chinese armies; thoughts of Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong on solidarity during Vietnamese resistance wars against the French and American invaders.”

Regarding regional security situation, both sides held that peace, cooperation and development still remains the main stream, but saying that conflict might occur if disputes had not been seriously controlled, in the region.

The Vietnamese deputy defense minister affirmed that, as an ASEAN member country, Vietnam always wants to strengthen bilateral relations with China, and that it applauded the expansion of cooperation between China and other ASEAN countries for peace and stability in the region.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh (C) at the event

At the meeting, the two high-ranking defense officials frankly stated that Vietnam and China still have different views on the East Sea (South China Sea) issue.

General Vinh affirmed that the issue is huge, repeating Vietnam’s consistent viewpoint: All involved parties should solve any disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982) and other international convention while strictly implementing DOC and wholeheartedly striving to build and finish COC.

“We resolutely protect our national sovereignty, strictly comply with international law, respect interests of involved parties and make special effort to prevent differences and disputes from flaring into conflict,” Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh stressed.

Both the high-ranking defense officials agreed that the two sides should effectively control differences in the future, promote public information and education so that the army and people of each country strictly follow the common viewpoints of leaders of the two Parties and States on the East Sea issue.

At the dialogue, the Chinese side introduced the reform program on the Chinese army to the guest and briefed the guest on the 6th Meeting of the Chinese Party Central Committee of the 18th term on Party building.

Admiral Sun Jianguo highly valued Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh’s opinions on Party building, saying that building an increasingly strong and healthy Party along with high vigilance of the army will neutralize every attempt of hostile forces to overturn the leadership of the Communist Party in each country.

Both Vietnamese and Chinese delegations agreed that the 6th Vietnam-China Defense Strategic Dialogue at the deputy defense minister level reaped big fruits. The two sides also agreed on the plan to organized the 7th Vietnam-China Defense Strategic Dialogue at the deputy defense minister level in 2017.

Reported by Bao Trung from Chengdu, China

Translated by Thu Nguyen