Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs have signed a document on extending the agreement on bilateral cooperation in the field of cross-border crime prevention and control.

Vietnamese Minister of Public Security (R) To Lam and Singaporean Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law K.Shanmugam review the guard of honour

The signing took place after talks between Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security To Lam and Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law K.Shanmugam in Hanoi on December 6.

At their talks, Lam said after the agreement was signed in 2006 and extended in 2012, the cooperation between the two ministries have seen positive strides in various fields such as high-level delegation exchanges, law enforcement, fire prevention, and search and rescue operations.

This has contributed to reinforcing mutual political trust and deepening the two countries’ strategic partnership set up in 2013, he said.

The effective cooperation between Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and Singapore’s relevant agencies over the past time has made active contributions to the defence-security cooperation – an important pillar in the bilateral relations, he added.

The two ministries have increased information exchanges in preventing terrorism, dealing with chemical, biological, nuclear and radioactive weapons as well as cyber attack risks, Lam said, adding that this is an important premise for the two governments and particularly the two ministries to develop cooperation in the future.

He noted that Vietnam will host the 39th ASEAN Police Conference (ASEANPOL – 39) in 2019, so his ministry hoped Singapore will support the event to reinforce the central role of ASEAN in general and the security-politics cooperation pillar in particular.

In 2020, Vietnam will take the role of ASEAN Chair and host a number of relevant events, Lam said. He suggested the two sides strengthen information exchanges in the fields of mutual concerns such as terrorism, economic crime, wanted criminals, cyber security, and other non-traditional security issues.

He asked the two sides to boost cooperation in training and ensuring cyber security as well as share relevant crime information to ensure safety for business and investment activities and for citizens living, learning, working, and travelling in the respective countries.

He also recommended maintaining the organisation of the Interpol bilateral conference and promoting experience sharing in law enforcement in fire and explosion prevention.

The Minister took this occasion to thank K.Shanmugam and officials from Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs for actively coordinating with Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security to handle serious cases related to economic fraud and human trafficking.

Shanmugam believed that the bilateral cooperation will see new developments and contribute to ensuring security and order in the respective countries as well as regional peace and stability.

He pledged to do his utmost to bring the bilateral friendship and cooperation to a new height.

The same day, Phan Dinh Trac, head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Commission for Internal Affairs, who is also deputy head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, received the Singapore’s Minister.-VNA