PANO – General Do Ba Ty, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army and Deputy Minister of National Defence, on February 3rd visited Military Zone 2 and Phu Tho province.

They were informed of the unit’s achievements in developing the socio-economy, reinforcing national defence and security, raising training and combat readiness quality, and preparing for the coming Lunar New Year or Tet holiday.

Highly hailing their results, General Do Ba Ty urged them to boost the unity between the army and the people, attach importance to defence-security missions, build strong defensive areas, and promote armed forces’ revolutionary vigilance.

In addition, they were asked to organise a joyful and economical Tet for troops and people, and then successfully hold the first recruitment drive of this year.

General Do Ba Ty (fourth from right) extending Tet greetings to the Phu Tho provincial Military Command

* A mission of the Defence Ministry, led by its Deputy Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Thanh Cung, inspected the Commands of Military Zone 7 and Army Corps 4.

The general requested them to enhance troops’ political stance, continually train according to designed combat plans, strictly conduct patrols to be ready to deal with any problems in any circumstances, and work with local authorities to take care of policy beneficiaries ahead the coming Tet festival.

Earlier, he extended Tet greetings to Senior Lieutenant General Phan Trung Kien, former Deputy Minister of National Defence.

* While visiting on-duty Divisions 370 and 367 of the Air Defence and Air Force Service and Brigade 77 of Military Zone 7, Lieutenant General Tran Don, Deputy Minister of National Defence, valued their efforts in conducting assigned tasks over the past time and underlined their roles in protecting the national sovereignty and responding to search and rescue missions.

During the Tet holiday, they are urged to seriously maintain combat readiness, mobilise troops on standby, and raise a sense of responsibility for management and command of soldiers in order to ensure order.

* Meanwhile, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, stressed that the Southern Helicopter Company under the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation should continue beefing up production in combination with strengthening their national defence work.

On this occasion, he wished the unit’s soldiers a happy Tet.

Translated by Van Hieu