Participants join a photo session at the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials (ADSOM)’s Working Group in Da Nang on Thursday. VNS Photo Cong Thanh

Lieutenant General Vu Chien Thang, Director General of the Department of Foreign Relations, under the Ministry of Defence, made the statement at the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials (ADSOM) Working Group in the central city of Da Nang on Thursday.

Thang, who chaired the Working Group meeting, said Vietnam set the following objectives for this year, including in the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM), promoting solidarity, consensus and centrality through consultation, sharing views and practical co-operation.

“Under the national theme ‘Cohesive and Responsive’ for the ASEAN Chairmanship 2020, the Ministry of Defence has chosen the theme ‘Defence co-operation for a cohesive and responsive ASEAN’ for the defence sector in 2020,” Thang said.

“This has been reflected in the draft ‘Joint Declaration of the ASEAN Defence Ministers on Defence Co-operation for a ‘Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN’ that we will take into consideration today,” he added.

“On this occasion, I would like to express our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims who lost lives due to recent floods in Jakarta,” Thang said at the opening event.

During the opening session, Thang said: “This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of ADMM-Plus. Vietnam is proud to have hosted the first ADMM-Plus in 2010. Since its establishment, ADMM-Plus has proven to be a unique, substantive co-operation mechanism and has attracted growing interests from non-Plus countries.”

“It also marks a special occasion, and Vietnam believes that we should have the ‘Joint Declaration by the ADMM-Plus Defence Ministers on Asia-Pacific Strategic Security Vision’, which serves as the guidelines for future regional defence cooperation in the next 10 years and beyond.”

He continued: “We have the Concept Paper on the ASEAN Flag to be displayed next to the National Flag at the Compound of ASEAN Military Units Participating in United Nations Peacekeeping Missions. This will contribute to promoting defence co-operation, while maintaining ASEAN centrality and consensus.”

The ADSOM Working Group, which has drawn the participation of 80 deputies from 10 ASEAN member countries and ASEAN secretariat board, focused on the preparatory works for ADSOM, the 14th ADMM and ADMM-Plus.

It also reviewed the progressive defence co-operation process among ASEAN members and valued of initiatives of ASEAN as well as discussing new initiatives at the ADSOM Working Group.

Participants of the ADSOM Working Group also raised concerns on the defence co-operation plan for the next three-year term.

It expected that the ADMM-Plus will open on Friday with the participation of 10 ASEAN member countries and eight dialogue countries from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the US and Russia. — VNS

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