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Partnerships with India, S Korea to be practical, effective
HA NOI Viet Nam's hosting of the first ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus has made a significant contribution to enhancing co-operation, understanding and trust among ASEAN member countries and their partners, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
During receptions for visiting Indian Defence Minister Shri AK Antony and his South Korean counterpart Kim Tae-young, Dung stated that bolstering regional co-operation aimed to ensure peace and stability while fostering development in the region as well as around the world.
In separate meetings, he stressed that Viet Nam always wanted to make its strategic partnerships with India and South Korea practical and effective in all domains.
"The Viet Nam India strategic partnership is a good model," he said. "Our traditional and friendly co-operation has always been consolidated by generations of the two sides' leadership."
Dung said he highly valued the results of earlier talks between the guests and their Vietnamese counterpart, General Phung Quang Thanh.
The Vietnamese Government would back the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence in working with Indian and Korean counterparts to realise all signed agreements, said Dung.
He also asked India for help in teaching English to Vietnamese army officers, while also sharing experiences on ways to develop the armed forces.
Antony confirmed India's active implementation of deals signed between India and Viet Nam, and said India would be willing to co-operate with Viet Nam in training naval officers, pilots and army medical staff.
Receiving South Korean Defence Minister Tae-young, Dung said Viet Nam and South Korea should enhance their defence relationship, following the memorandum of understanding signed between the two defence ministries.
"The two sides should strive to efficiently realise our commitments while accelerating dialogue at the deputy ministers' level and strengthening co-operation in personnel training, defence techniques and information sharing," Dung said.
"The defence ministries' agreements will make an active contribution to the two countries' strategic partnership."
Tae-young expressed his satisfaction with the development of bilateral relations.
He said South Korea would strive to further reinforce defence ties between the two countries. He expressed the hope that the government and people of both countries would continue sharing and further tightening ties as brothers and sisters for mutual development in the future.
Tae-young said the ADMM Plus was an important channel in settling matters of concern in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and provided opportunities for participants to join hands for mutual development and prosperity.
Chairman's statement
The first ADMM Plus wrapped up on Tuesday with a 23-point Chairman's statement.
The statement highlights positive contributions by the "Plus" countries in enhancing peace, stability and development in Southeast Asia.
It affirmed the importance of ASEAN centrality in the ADMM Plus process, and that co-operation within the framework of ADMM Plus should follow the ASEAN principles of respect for independence and sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs of member states, consultation and consensus, and moving at a pace comfortable to all parties.
The statement also affirmed that the ADMM Plus is a key component of a robust, effective, open and inclusive regional security architecture.
It further affirmed that peace, stability and development remained the prevailing trends in the Asia-Pacific region. However, it noted that there existed complex and trans-national security challenges that are beyond the scope of any country to handle alone, such as natural disasters, maritime security, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, climate change, trans-national crimes and outbreaks of infectious diseases.
The statement said terrorism continued to pose a key challenge to the security of the region, thus ADMM-Plus had significant potential for member countries to share information, build vital networks and enhance capabilities to combat the threat of terrorism.
ADMM Plus appreciated the opportunity to have an open and candid exchange of views on the key security challenges faced by the region.
It agreed to establish an ASEAN Defence Senior Officials' Meeting-Plus (ADSOM-Plus), comprising senior officials from all the ADMM-Plus member countries. The ADSOM-Plus would be responsible for implementing agreements and decisions made at ADMM-Plus meetings, including exploring the various areas for practical co-operation. VNS
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