PANO – Deputy Defense Minister, Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, led a high-ranking Vietnamese defense delegation attended the first Vietnam-France Defense Policy Dialogue, and visited the country at the invitation of Mr. Philippe Errera, Director-General of the General Department for Strategy and International Relations under the French Defense Ministry, from November 7-11.
At the dialogue, the host highly valued the role and position of Vietnam in the region and expressed hope to bolster defense cooperation with Vietnam, contributing to peace, stability and development.
Mr. Errera thanked the Vietnamese Defense Ministry for its support and participation in the recent defense ministerial conference on peacekeeping operations in Francophone environments hosted by the French DefenseMinistry, affirming that this demonstrated Vietnam’s responsibility and contribution to the international community.
The signing of two technical agreements on military medicine cooperation, and cooperation on UN peacekeeping operations between the two countries.
General Vinh thanked the host for their warm reception. He said that the dialogue took place at an important time as it followed the state-level visit to Vietnam of the French President. During the visit, leaders of the two countries discussed the contents of the Vietnam-France strategic partnership as well as exchanged approaches to boost bilateral relations in a more practical and effective manner in all areas, including defensecooperation.
Additionally, this was the first defense policy dialogue between the two countries, marking an adjustment of bilateral defense cooperation for actual and practical outcomes in line with the current context.
The dialogue also reflected increasing political trust, which serves as the basis to expand and deepen bilateral defense cooperation between Vietnam and France.
General Vinh asserted that Vietnam is ready to connect France to regional countries, particularly ASEAN members.
The two sides exchanged their views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, agreeing that the global situation is experiencing complex developments, requiring countries to join efforts to handle non-traditional security challenges, and those differences and disputes between/among countries must be settled by peaceful means on the basis of international law.
Regarding bilateral defense cooperation, the two sides expressed pleasure at the good outcomes of the bilateral defense cooperation, particularly in personnel training, UN peacekeeping operations and maritime security, in line with the deal on defense cooperation signed by the two sides in November 2009 and other effective cooperation mechanisms.
The two sides also agreed to sign two important documents: Vietnam-France Joint Vision on Defense Cooperation and Agreement on Information Exchange and Secret Protection so as to deepen defense cooperation between the two sides.
Both host and guest also saw the need to increase exchange of delegations at all levels; enhance defense strategic dialogues; collaborate and support each other at multilateral defense and security mechanisms and forums; and strengthen cooperation on military medicine, training defense industry, naval ship visits, UN peacekeeping operations as well as expand new cooperation areas such as maritime and aviation security and safety, and non-traditional security issues, for interests of each sides.
At the end of the dialogue, the two heads of the delegations witnessed the signing of two technical agreements on military medicine cooperation, and cooperation on UN peacekeeping operations between the two countries.
As parts of the working visit, the high-ranking Vietnamese defensedelegation visited Villacoublay airbase and the War Academy.
Translated by Thu Nguyen
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