Present at the announcement ceremony were Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defense Minister, and representatives from Vietnam’s relevant agencies and several international organizations like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Vietnam.

Senior Colonel Than Thanh Cong, Chief of Office 701, said that the office is in charge of planning and carrying out action projects of the National Steering Committee on Overcoming War Consequences of UXO and Toxic Chemicals in Vietnam, mobilizing resources from domestic and international sponsors, and inspecting and evaluating those projects to submit them to higher levels.

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At the event

In his speech, Michael Greene, Director of USAID to Vietnam underlined that over the past time, USAID has conducted humanitarian aid projects in the Southeast Asian country, contributing to the Vietnam-US relationship. Several of its major projects in Vietnam are bringing practical benefits to local people, especially the Da Nang Airport Remediation Project. He pledged to continue working with relevant Vietnamese agencies to resolve war consequences and support Agent Orange/dioxin victims in Vietnam.

Addressing the event, General Vinh thanked the Vietnamese bodies, the governments of the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and international organizations for close coordination in this humanitarian issue, adding that the Vietnamese Government and people always pay special attention to quickly tackling the aftermath left behind from the war. He also urged more efforts from the aforementioned agencies to contribute to this work in the coming times.

As for the Office 701, the Deputy Defense Minister requested its staff to continue to work with relevant domestic agencies and international organizations to effectively carry out projects of handling war consequences, while actively popularizing this progress to the international community and calling for further international support for Vietnam in this area.

Translated by Van Hieu