Lieut. Gen. Ngo Minh Tien, Deputy Chief of the General Staffof the Vietnam People’s Army, led the Vietnamese delegation to the event.
Participants agreed that the region is facing manytraditional and non-traditional challenges, especially competition among worldpowers, territorial sovereignty disputes, terrorism, and cyber security.
It requires ASEAN member countries to promote intra-bloccooperation as well as strengthen collaboration with partners, including Japan,to deal with common challenges.
Addressing the event, Tien underlined the need for strongermultilateral partnership, especially cooperation within the ASEAN DefenceMinisterial Meeting (ADMM) and ADMM+, which help strengthen dialogue on internationaland regional issues of shared concern and increase trust among countries whilecreating a framework to promote practical cooperation among military forces insideand outside ASEAN.
Participants highlighted the significance of theIndo-Pacific region, where many important transportation lines meet.
The ensuring of goods and services exchange plays a crucialrole in promoting economic development in the region, they noted, stressingthat all countries, small or big, should enhance their responsibility and abideby international laws.
At the event, ASEAN countries showed support for Japan’sstrengthening of defence cooperation with ASEAN on the foundation of theVientiane Vision, especially activities to raise the capacity of ASEANcountries.
Regarding the ASEAN-Japan defence cooperation, Tien laudedpositive contributions made by Japan within the ADMM since the mechanism wasestablished in Vietnam in October 2010.
As the coordinator of ASEAN-Japan relations, Vietnam willcontinue to work closely with relevant parties to realize cooperation betweenthe two sides, he pledged.
Lieut. Gen. Onsi Sensuk, Deputy Defence Minister of Laos,lauded the efficiency of the ASEAN-Japan strategic partnership, includingdefence affiliation, especially since the Vientiane Vision was introduced in2016.
The same day, delegates paid a courtesy call to Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono.
On the occasion, Lieut. Gen Ngo Minh Tien had a meeting withJapanese Deputy Defence Minister Yasunori Nishida, during which both sidesshowed their pleasure at the progress of the Vietnam-Japan defence ties overthe years and concurred to continue promoting collaboration in a number ofareas, including naval ship exchange, defence industry, war aftermathovercoming, and UN peacekeeping.
The Japanese side vowed to support Vietnam when the countryplays its role as ASEAN Chair in 2020./.