Vietnamese Defence Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich (R) and his Australian counterpart Christopher Pyne ink the Vietnam-Australia Declaration on Joint Visions for Enhancing Defence Cooperation on November 8 (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Embassy of Australia in Vietnamcelebrated the 20th anniversary of the two countries’ defencerelations at a ceremony in Hanoi on November 27.
The event was attended by Deputy Director of the Vietnam People’s Army(VPA)’s General Department of Politics, Lieutenant General Le Hien Van,gathering Vietnamese military personnel who used to visit or receive trainingin Australia under defence cooperation programmes.
In his remarks, Van said Vietnam – Australia relations have seenconstant progress since the two countries set up diplomatic ties in February,1973, adding that bilateral defence cooperation in recent years has flourishedin multiple areas, particularly exchange of visits, consultancy and dialogue,training, UN peacekeeping missions, air and naval operation andcounter-terrorism.
He noted that cooperation in training has laid a solid foundation forthe two defence ministries to expand their ties.
Australia is the leading native English speaking provider of languageand professional development courses for Vietnamese service personnel, theofficer said.
He expected the event would be an opportunity for military officersfrom Vietnam to pay tribute to their Australian lecturers.
Defence relations between Vietnam and Australia wereformalised in February 1999, when an Australian Defence Attaché was posted toHanoi.
The Vietnam – Australia Defence relationship hasdeveloped significantly since the Memorandum of Understanding for DefenceCooperation was signed by the two Defence Ministers in November 2010. Australiahas begun to engage the VPA in practical activities, such as limited trainingactivities between the two Navies and Special Forces personnel, according tothe Australian Embassy in Vietnam.
Since 2012, an annual joint Foreign Affairs/DefenceAustralia-Vietnam Strategic Dialogue has been held at Deputy-Secretary and Vice-Ministerlevels.
Australia has also led in providing English languageand specialist training to VPA peacekeepers in 2014 prior to their inaugural UNpeacekeeping deployment to South Sudan.
Vietnam hosted the sixth round of the Dialogue on 10October 2018. The two nations also conduct annual Australia-VietnamDefence Cooperation Senior Officials' talks.
Earlier this month, the two sides inked theDeclaration on Joint Visions for Enhancing Defence Cooperation during a visitof Vietnamese Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich to Australia. –VNA
VNA
