Deputy Minister of National Defence, Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh

During the calls, the Vietnamese official briefed on Vietnam’s efforts in containing the spread of COVID-19, stressing that thanks to the involvement of the whole political system and the Government’s drastic direction, Vietnam has successfully controlled the pandemic.

Vietnam shares difficulties caused by the pandemic to people of the Republic of Korea (RoK) and India, Vinh said, expressing his belief that the two countries will soon repel the disease.

Through his counterparts, he conveyed the invitations of Vietnamese Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich to the Defence Ministers of the RoK and India to Vietnam and attend the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM ) at the end of the year.

He expressed his readiness to organise and attend the Vietnam-RoK and Vietnam – India defence policy dialogues with his two counterparts at a right time in 2020.

For his part, RoK Defence Minister Park Jae-min and Indian Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar praised Vietnam’s efforts in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, with the great contributions of the Vietnam People's Army.

On this occasion, Vinh and his two counterparts reviewed the results of bilateral defence cooperation, and agreed on future cooperation directions. They affirmed their determination not to let COVID-19 affect defence cooperation.

The Vietnamese and RoK officials agreed to effectively implement commitments between the two ministries in terms of exchange of high-ranking delegations, UN peacekeeping operation, cyber security, overcoming post-war consequence, and defence industry.

They stressed the need to enhance military medicine cooperation in preventing diseases, saying that this is necessary to deal with non-traditional security challenges.

Meanwhile, Vinh and his Indian counterpart emphasised that defence cooperation is one of the important pillar in the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations. They agreed to expand cooperation in military medicine, UN peacekeeping operation, defence industry and training.

The Vietnamese official also informed his counterparts about Vietnam’s plans to organise activities during the year it acts as ASEAN Chair 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2020-2021./.VNA