The information about the exchange was introduced at a press conference held in Hanoi on November 14 by Major General Nguyen Dai Hoi, Deputy Director of the Foreign Relations Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense.
The Vietnamese delegation will be led by General Ngo Xuan Lich, Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission and Defense Minister, while the Chinese delegation will be headed by Senior Lieutenant General Wei Fenghe, member of the Central Military Commission and Defense Minister.
The agenda will comprise a friendship seminar, cultural and artistic exchanges with the engagement of border guard forces, local authorities and people living in the shared borderline of China and Vietnam, a border marker saluting ceremony, a joint patrol session on the Bowang border river, and an inauguration ceremony of Ta Lung cultural friendship center.
During the exchange, a ceremony to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the friendship between Vietnam’s Phuc Hoa district and China’s Longzhou county will be held together with a joint exercise on disaster and epidemic consequence relief and a meeting to review five years of the Vietnam-China Border Defense Friendship Exchange.
Also at the press conference, General Hoi stressed that the fifth exchange will be much bigger than the previous ones with the participation of more diverse members from the Chinese side and more lively and attractive contents.
General Hoi said that after the four successful exchanges, the two sides have reaped such achievements as enhanced friendship between the two countries, militaries, localities sharing the borderline; strengthened ties between the central agencies and localities, authorities and people, troops and civilians; more exchanges, cooperation and experience-sharing between people living in border areas; and raised awareness of the public of national territorial sovereignty and border security.
According to Senior Colonel Van Ngoc Que, Deputy Chief of the Political Department of the Vietnam Border Guard, over the past time, the border guard forces of the two countries have carried out various friendship models to promote their ties, such as “Building an exemplary borderline,” “Vietnam-China friendship ambassadors,” “Patrol of solidarity,” “Cross-border counter-terrorism exercise,” and “Exercise on medical aid.” Especially, since 2014, the two sides have organized five anti-crime and counter-terrorism exercises and more than 600 joint patrol sessions.
“The Vietnam-China Border Defense Friendship Exchange aims to promote friendship and solidarity among local authorities, people and border guard forces of the two countries and two militaries. Through the exchange, the political trust between the two countries and militaries has been boosted, contributing to the stable and sustainable development in their relations and to building the two peoples’ trust in a borderline of peace, friendship, stability and long-term development. The exchange has contributed to combating allegation distorting Vietnam-China relationship as well,” emphasized Major General Nguyen Van Duc, Director of the Department of Information and Training under the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People’s Army.
The first Vietnam-China Border Defense Friendship Exchange was held in 2014 in Vietnam’s Mong Cai city and China’s Dongxing city. Meanwhile, Lao Cai, Lang Son and Lai Chau provinces of Vietnam hosted the second, third and fourth exchange in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Translated by Mai Huong