Lieutenant–General Mai Quang Phan at the ceremony

PANO – The Propaganda and Training Department, under the General Department of Politics, organized a press conference on July 13th to introduce activities of Defense Ministry to mark the 45th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam–Cambodia diplomatic ties, Vietnam–Cambodia Friendship Year, the 35th anniversary of the signing of Vietnam–Laos Friendship and Cooperation Treaty, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam–Laos diplomatic ties and Vietnam–Laos Friendship Year.

At the ceremony, Lieutenant–General Mai Quang Phan, Deputy Director of General Department of Politics, stressed the important role of Vietnam–Laos and Vietnam–Cambodia relations as well as traditional and historical relations of Vietnam People’s Army and Lao and Cambodian Armies. “Over the past time, these ties have been continuously consolidated and developed.

General Phan said that over the past time, Vietnam People’s Army worked closely with armies of the two neighbouring countries to defend border area and find and repatriate sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who had died serving international obligations in Laos and Cambodia.

The Vietnamese Defense Ministry has encouraged staff and troops in whole army to take part in a contest to learn more about Vietnam and Lao relations and write articles on the special relations for the People Army’s Newspaper.

According to Colonel Nguyen Phuong Dien, Deputy - Head of the Propaganda and Training Department, apart from the above-mentioned activities, Defense Ministry organized trade fairs in Laos and Cambodia and sent delegations of doctors and nurses to provide health check-ups and medicines to people from these two neighboring countries.

“Lao and Cambodian Armies actively helped Vietnam find and repatriate remains of the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and military experts who had died in the two countries. In the first six months of 2012, search teams repatriated 104 sets of remains of Vietnamese martyrs from Cambodia and 434 others from Laos,” Colonel Nguyen Phuong Dien said.

The Vietnamese Defense Ministry organized an exchange among youths from Vietnam and Cambodia Armies in Dong Nai Province and will organize an exchange between Vietnamese and Lao youths in the two armies on August 1st at Tran Quoc Tuan University. 

Translated by Tran Hoai