Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh (Photo: VNA)Washington DC (VNA) – The recent Vietnam-US defence policy dialogue concretised the contentsreached by the two countries’ defence ministers and discussed some defence cooperationissues to ensure that President Donald Trump will have an insight in bilateralties during his upcoming visit to Vietnam, said a high-ranking officer.
From October 15-18, Deputy Defence Minister Sen.Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh attended the defence policy dialogue in WashingtonDC and held a series of meetings with US officials, parliamentarians andrepresentatives of some organisations to talk bilateral relations.
He told the Vietnam News Agency that he made theworking visit to the US shortly after a trip by Defence Minister Gen. Ngo XuanLich. Therefore, the dialogue mainly aimed to realise the contents reached byMinister Lich and US Secretary of Defence James Mattis.
At the event, the two sides discussed andconcurred in the main content of defence cooperation from 2018 to 2021, henoted, adding that cooperation in war consequences settlement in Vietnam wasone of the focal issues under consideration.
US officials shared the Vietnamese side’s viewthat this is one of the cooperation spheres with positive outcomes, which havehelped address war aftermath and build up mutual trust for future cooperation.
[Vietnam-US defence dialogue takes place in Washington DC]
The US Department of Defence affirmed that itwill strongly assist Vietnam to deal with unexploded ordnance and Agent Orage(AO)/dioxin consequences and seek Vietnamese martyrs’ remains. It also highlyvalued Vietnam’s cooperation with the US in the search for missing-in-actionservicemen of the US, Vinh added.
He said settling AO/dioxin consequences is alsoa focus of Vietnam-US cooperation in solving the war aftermath. A highlight isthe AO/dioxin detoxification project worth nearly 100 million USD in Da Nangcity. This US-funded project began in 2014 and has come to fruition.
Both sides plan to organise a ceremony toannounce the project completion in November, when President Trump attends theAPEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang and pay an official visit to Vietnam,he noted.
Vinh said he hopes the ceremony would beattended by the two countries’ senior officials and President Trump would visitthe project site, which is near Da Nang International Airport, to see theoutcome of bilateral cooperation.-VNA
VNA
