On the morning of March 11, General Lich hosted an official reception for the Philippine Defense Secretary and his entourage at the Headquarters of the Vietnamese Defense Ministry. After that, the two defense ministers had talks.
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Vietnamese Defense Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich and his Philippine counterpart review the Guard of Honor of the Vietnam People's Army. |
At the meeting, General Lich and Mr. Lorenzana shared international and regional issues of mutual concern, and informed each other of the situation in each other’s country.
They reviewed outcomes of the bilateral defense cooperation over the past time, especially since the two Defense Ministries signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral defense cooperation in 2010 and the two countries upgraded their relations to a strategic partnership in 2015.
The two defense ministers shared the same view that Vietnam and the Philippines have seen robust developments in defense cooperation in delegation exchanges, dialogue and consultation mechanisms, exchange between naval forces, education and training, information sharing, and defense policy dialogue at deputy-ministerial level.
The Vietnamese Defense Minister and his Philippine counterpart agreed to boost the bilateral defense relations with a focus on enhancing exchanges and consultations, and supporting each other’s initiatives at multilateral forums. The Philippines will support Vietnam in hosting military-defense events when Vietnam takes over the Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2020.
In addition, they will beef up their defense cooperation in fields of young officer exchanges, defense industry, non-traditional security, cooperation between air forces, and military medicine.
During his stay in Vietnam, Mr. Lorenzana will head the Philippine high-ranking defense mission to visit the Military Industry-Telecoms Group (Viettel), lay flowery wreaths at the Monument to Heroes and Martyrs in Hanoi, and pay tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi.
Translated by Van Hieu