The dialogue, a significant policy-level cooperation mechanism, is a good opportunity for the two sides to discuss international and regional security issues of mutual concern, double-check and evaluate the cooperation outcomes of the two Defense Ministries and militaries over the past time and agree on the cooperation orientations for the upcoming time.
At the dialogue, the Thai General hailed the Vietnamese delegation’s participation in the dialogue and emphasized that the organization of this dialogue in the context that the two countries are enjoying fruitful developments in their relationship would make practical contributions to reinforcing the ties between the two Defense Ministries and militaries in particular and the two countries in general.
The Thai General also stressed that Thailand has always highly valued the role of Vietnam in the region and the world at large, especially in ASEAN.
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General Vinh at the dialogue. Photo: VNA |
For his part, General Vinh thanked the Thai Ministry of Defense for its fine reception. Vinh underscored that Vietnam always applauds Thailand’s role in the region and hopes to strengthen its defense ties with the country for peace, stability and development in the region and the world.
During the dialogue, the two sides shared their standpoints on international and regional situations of mutual concern, including defense-security challenges for the ASEAN Community and the two nations.
Both agreed that current challenges have been changing quickly and complicatedly in both scale and nature, requiring the regional joint cooperation. To cope with these challenges effectively, ASEAN needs to uphold the strategic balance and its central role while ASEAN member nations and their partners should be responsible and make contributions to the common security issues.
Regarding the bilateral defense cooperation, the two sides agreed that since the first Defense Policy Dialogue hosted by Vietnam last year’s July, the cooperation between the two Defense Ministries and militaries has continued to develop strongly, reaping practical results, on the basis of the defense cooperation agreement signed by the two Defense Ministries.
The two sides agreed to implement fully and effectively current cooperation contents, boost exchanges of delegations and young officers and cooperation between corps while promoting cooperation in personnel training, UN peacekeeping activities, anti-terrorism, military medicine, search and rescue and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
They also reached consensus on continuing to coordinate, consult and support each other in multilateral defense-military forums, especially during Thailand’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2019 and Vietnam’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.
Translated by Mai Huong