Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army Sen. Lt. Gen. Phan Van Giang (L) and Chief of Defence Forces of the Royal Thai Armed Forces Gen. Ponpipaat Benyasri inspect the guard of honour at the welcome ceremony for the latter in Hanoi on December 20 (Photo: VNA)

On December 20, the Thai official paid acourtesy call to Minister of National Defence Gen.

Ngo Xuan Lich, who saidVietnam always attaches importance to the cooperation with ASEAN countries,including Thailand.

The host congratulated Thailand on successfullyfulfilling its role as the ASEAN Chair in 2019, which he said has greatlyhelped strengthen ASEAN’s cooperation and raise the bloc’s standing in theregion and the world.

He also asked Thailand to further bring intoplay its role and join Vietnam and other ASEAN members to promote therealisation of the ASEAN Community’s common goals.

Applauding the outcomes of the session betweenthe Thai official and the Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’sArmy, Sen. Lt. General Phan Van Giang, Lich asked both sides to maintain thedialogue mechanism to effectively implement cooperation agreements between thetwo defence ministries.

For his part, Gen. Benyasri affirmed that in hisposition, he will continue making contributions to the development of therelations between the two militaries in a practical and effective manner and inline with the countries’ strategic partnership.

Earlier, Giang hosted a welcome ceremony for theThai official and his entourage.

At the subsequent talks, Giang said theVietnam-Thailand strategic partnership has been developing in all fields, frompolitics, security, economy to culture and society, with defence cooperation beingone of the important pillars in the bilateral ties.

In 2020, when Vietnam serves as ASEAN Chair, itsDefence Ministry will hold more than 20 military-defence meetings andactivities of the bloc, he noted, expressing his hope that Thailand and theChief of Defence Forces will support those events and initiatives of Vietnam.

During the talks, both sides shared the viewthat bilateral defence-military collaboration has continued to be implementedfruitfully as seen through mutual visits, officer exchanges, language training,information sharing, and cooperation between their air and naval forces.

They agreed to maintain the exchange ofdelegations, especially high-ranking ones, and officers. 

In the time ahead, the two sides will considerorganising exchanges between military regions and corps, share experience insupporting people in poverty reduction and building borders of sustainability,maintain joint training activities during joint patrols at sea, and exchangeexperience in cross-border crime combat.

Aside from considering the organisation of jointmedical services provision, they will also discuss the possibility ofcooperation in such fields as logistics, defence industry, and anti-terrorism,according to the officials./.VNA