Representatives from Vietnamese and US agencies at the ceremony. (Photo: qdnd.vn)DaNang (VNA) – A ceremony to repatriate two sets of remains believed to be ofUS soldier listed as missing in action (MIA) from the war in Vietnam was heldat the Da Nang International Airport in the central city of Da Nang on April 16.
The ceremony, the 164th of its kind, saw the attendance of Deputy Defence Minister Hoang Xuan Chien, Assistant Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu, representatives from the ministries of defence, foreign affairs and public security and the Vietnam Office for SeekingMissing Persons (VNOSMP). On the US side were US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc E. Knapper, US Defence Attaché toVietnam Thomas Bouchillon and representatives of the US MIA Office in Hanoi.
Theremains were found as the result of the 154th joint field activitywhich lasted from February to April 2024. Vietnameseforensic specialists examined the remains and determined that they might belongto US MIAs from the war in Vietnam.
The joint efforts of the two governments to search and account for US MIAs since the late 1980s have to date identify over 720 US MIAs.
On this occasion, Deputy Defence Minister Chien hosted a reception for US Ambassador Knapper, during which he highly appreciatedthe US' help for Vietnam to overcome the consequences of war,including raising the budget for the dioxin detoxification project at BienHoa airport to 300 million USD; supporting people with disabilities in localitiesaffected by Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin; conducting mine clearance; and cooperating insearching for Vietnamese soldiers who died or went missing during the war.
He proposed that the two sides coordinate to early sign a memorandum of understanding onovercoming the consequences of war in Vietnam.
Ambassador Knapper affirmed that the US Government iscommitted at the highest level to supporting Vietnam in overcoming theconsequences of war, especially in completely cleaningup dioxincontamination at Bien Hoa airport and transferring DNAexamination technology for identifying Vietnamese martyrs’ remains.
He also expressed a wish to work closely with Vietnam to hold activities to mark the 30th anniversary of the normalisation of relations and establishment of diplomatic relationship between the US and Vietnam (1995-2025), the 50th year since the end of the war in Vietnam (1975-2025) and 80 years since the first contact between Viet Minh and the US (1945-2025)./.
