At the meeting, both sides agreed that 2018 marked a milestone in the Vietnam-France relationship with important events, especially the visits of senior leaders of the two countries, which demonstrated the development of the bilateral relations. In the overall relationship, defense cooperation also plays an important role.

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Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh (R) and French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary

Gen. Vinh also recommended that the two sides should continue maintaining exchange of delegations at all levels in order to enhance credibility, while creating a foundation to map out new contents and measures to promote bilateral cooperative ties.

In 2019, the first Vietnam-France dialogue on security and defense strategy will be held. This is, in fact, an upgrading of the Vietnam-France Joint Committee on Defense Cooperation mechanism launched in 2010.

“Both sides need to step up cooperation in strategic issues, cooperation in multilateral forums, particiaption in UN peace-keeping operations, and military medicine training courses,” he stressed.

For his part, Ambassador Lortholary affirmed that strengthening cooperation in the above areas will contribute to bringing Vietnam-France defense relations to a new height.

Translated by Lam Anh