Vietnam’s defence cooperation with Australia has progressed and is hoped to be further intensified following the visit to Vietnam by Vice Chief of Australia's Defence Force Mark Binskin.

Deputy Defence Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) Do Ba Ty made the remarks at a reception for the Australian senior officer in Hanoi on November 14.

For his part, Mark Binskin thanked Ty for his warm welcome and briefed him of the outcomes of his talks with Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the VPA Lieut . Gen . Vo Van Tuan.

At the talks in Hanoi on November 13, the two sides reached a consensus on addressing disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means on the basis of strictly abiding by international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), according to Quan doi Nhan dan (People’s Army) newspaper.

They agreed that bilateral defence cooperation has been developed in many fields since the Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Defence Cooperation signed in 2010.

In the coming time, Vietnam and Australia will effectively bring into play their dialogue mechanisms at all levels and promote delegation exchanges and education and training while sharing experience in anti-terrorism, search and rescue, UN peacekeeping activities, and others.-VNA