Deputy Defence Minister receives Singaporean Ambassador

Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien (R) presents a souvenir to Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam (Photo: www.qdnd.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien hosted a reception for Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam in Hanoi on February 14.

At the event, Chien said that Vietnam highly values position, role and active participation of Singapore in promoting the bilateral relations, especially within the ASEAN framework, thereby raising intra-bloc solidarity and enhancing the role and position of the bloc in the region and the world.

He voiced a hope that Singapore will uphold its role and bolster the implementation of the targets of the ASEAN Community together with Vietnam and other ASEAN nations.

The official thanked the Singaporean government for providing Vietnam with COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility and hoped for continued support in the coming time.

The Vietnamese Government and the National Defence Ministry always treasure the countries’ strategic partnership, viewing it as a foundation to beef up the bilateral defence cooperation for practical results, he remarked.

Chien said he hopes that the Singaporean ambassador will continue to pay attention to and promote the implementation of cooperation fields that the sides agreed upon at the recent 12th Vietnam-Singapore defence policy dialogue, contributing to strengthening the bilateral strategic cooperation in the future.

For his part, Ratnam underlined that the Singapore-Vietnam relations have thrived in the past nearly five decades on the foundation of mutual respect and trust, especially after the countries lifted the bilateral ties to a strategic partnership in 2013.

Defence is among the most important fields of cooperation of the bilateral relations, he affirmed.

The diplomat pledged to spare no efforts in enhancing the bilateral relations across all spheres, including national defence./.