At the meeting, Secretary Gilberto Teodoro sent deep condolences to Vietnam over the passing of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Saying that it was a great loss of the country, the Philippine official expressed his belief that Vietnam would soon overcome the grief to continue national development cause.
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Secretary of National Defense of Philippine Gilberto Teodoro |
He affirmed that the Philippines attaches importance to consolidating and enhancing its strategic partnership with Vietnam and shows determination to join hands with Vietnam to lift bilateral relations to a new height and in an intensive, comprehensive and sustainable fashion, actively contributing to peace, stability, prosperity and development in the region and the world.
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Sr. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro |
Gen. Chien underlined that Vietnam and the Philippines are neighboring countries with shared sea border and active and responsible members of the ASEAN Community. The upgrading of the two countries’ relations to strategic partnership in 2015 and the Vietnam visit by President of the Philippines Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. in January this year are important milestones to create motivation and opportunities for the two countries to develop their friendly ties practically and substantively.
He informed the host about the outcomes of the aforementioned dialogue and emphasized that the two sides agreed to promote effective consultations and dialogues, maintain information sharing and training, enhance maritime cooperation, search and rescue operations, disaster response, crime prevention, and jointly address non-traditional security threats.
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Delegates in a group photo |
Secretary Gilberto Teodoro suggested the two sides actively and effectively implement cooperation contents agreed by the head delegates, develop the bilateral defense in a practical and effective manner, thus deepening Vietnam-Philippines strategic partnership.
Gen. Chien hoped to receive more care and support from the Philippine Secretary in potential fields of cooperation such as navigation security and safety, cooperation between agencies and research institutes, logistics, military medicine, search and rescue at sea, U.N. peacekeeping, and defense industry. He also expressed his hope that the Philippine Department of National Defense’s leaders would back Vietnam-hosted events, particularly the 80th founding anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army and the second International Vietnam Defense Expo, slated for this December.
Earlier, Gen. Chien and the Vietnamese delegation visited the Philippine Naval Command’s headquarters, during which Gen. Chien highly appreciated the cooperation achievements between the two navies in the past. He highlighted the two sides’ delegation exchanges, regular contacts, effective maintenance of naval consultation mechanism, exchange between the two forces, sharing of information, and joint support for distressed fishermen at sea.
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Gen. Chien and the Vietnamese delegation visit the Philippine Naval Command’s headquarters. |
Gen. Chien stressed that the MND of Vietnam always supports and creates favorable conditions for the two navies in particular and the two law enforcement forces in particular to exchange and cooperate. He asked the two navies to enhance information sharing, give timely support to fishermen in distress, and make active contribution to regional navigation security and safety.
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Gen. Chien, the Vietnamese delegation, and the Philippine Navy’s officers in a group photo |
Leaders of the Philippine Naval Command agreed with Gen. Chien’s sharing and on promoting the two navies’ coordination, especially in search and rescue, information sharing, disaster response, crime prevention, coping with non-traditional security challenges, support to distressed fishermen, and dissemination among two countries’ fishermen about fishing and sea-related exploitation regulations.
Translated by Mai Huong