The Vietnamese defense chief is in Cambodia to attend the ADMM Retreat, the ninth ADMM Plus, and the ASEAN - U.S., ASEAN - India Defense Ministers’ Informal Meetings from November 21 to 23.
At the meeting, the Vietnamese minister congratulated China on the success of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, highlighting its importance and long-term significance to the East Asia country’s development, opening a new page for the country’s national building and realization of the second centennial goal.
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Defense Minister Phan Van Giang and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe |
Defense Minister Phan Van Giang emphasized that Vietnam treasured the fact that the Chinese Communist Party, Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping invited Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to visit China right after the successful organization of the aforementioned congress.
The Vietnamese defense chief highly appreciated Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to China since it was the first official reception of China for a foreign leader after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and also the first overseas visit of the Vietnamese party chief after the success of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
For his part, Chinese minister Wei Fenghe confirmed that the defense relations between China and Vietnam are important to help develop the friendship and cooperation between the two parties, states and for the benefit of the two peoples and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in each country, the region and the world.
Regarding the Vietnamese party chief’s official visit to China early this month, the Chinese official said that China attached importance to this visit, saying that it held a special meaning to the two countries and their ties.
Also at the conversation, both officials praised the effective and flexible exchange activities in the bilateral defense cooperation over the past time despite COVID-19 impacts.
About the cooperation orientations in the coming time, the two ministers agreed to enhance exchange of all-level delegations, particularly high-level ones, effectively carry out current exchange and cooperation mechanisms, such as defense strategic dialogue at deputy minister level, and border defense friendship exchange.
They reached agreement on fostering the cooperation in party and political work, diversifying information exchange forms, strengthening the ties between services and arms, academies and schools, and especially continuing to support and coordinate with each other in multilateral defense and military forums.
Apart from sharing views on situations in the region and the world, the two sides also frankly discussed and agreed to settle issues related to the two nations’ relationship from a strategic height and for the common interests of the two countries, by peaceful means and on the basis of international laws.
General Phan Van Giang affirmed Vietnam's consistent standpoint is to peacefully address disagreements in the spirit of respecting each other's legitimate rights and interests, and issues at sea in accordance with international laws, including the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, bringing into play negotiation mechanisms at sea, furthering discussing development cooperation, to fully and effectively implement the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (South China Sea internationally), strive to build a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea in accordance with international laws, including UNCLOS 1982.
Both ministers consented to accelerate the bilateral defense ties to actualize the cooperation contents reached by the two countries’ senior leaders during the freshly-concluded visit to China of the Vietnamese party chief in order to develop the Vietnam - China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a healthy and stable manner according to the guideline of “friendly neighborliness, comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability, future-oriented thinking” and the spirit of “good neighbors, good friends, good comrades, good partners.”
Translated by Mai Huong