President Tran Dai Quang (R) receives Lao Minister of National Defence Chansamone Channhalat (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamese and Lao armies need to push ahead with cooperation to ensure political security and defend revolutionary achievements in the respective countries.
President Tran Dai Quang made the remark at a reception for Lao Minister of National Defence Chansamone Channhalat in Hanoi on June 20.
He said the growing bilateral collaboration will significantly contribute to successfully implementing the Resolution adopted at the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam and another approved at the 10th Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP).
The President congratulated Chansamone Channhalat on his election as a Politburo member of the LPRP and Defence Minister.
Chansamone’s selection of Vietnam as his first leg as Defence Minister shows that the Lao Party, State and army attach much importance to the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, Quang said.
He hailed the outcomes of the talks between the two countries’ defence ministers and agreed on their cooperation orientations in the coming time.
He also congratulated the Lao Ministry of National Defence on the successful organization of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), which helped consolidate the bloc’s solidarity and increase the position of Laos as Chair of ASEAN in 2016.
Both host and guest highlighted the special relationship between Vietnam and Laos, which was founded by late Presidents Ho Chi Minh, Kaysone Phomvihane, and Suphanouvong, and nurtured by the two countries’ generations of leaders and people.
President Quang said Vietnam pledged to do its utmost to support Laos in organising successfully ASEAN events this year as well as celebrating the 55th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and 40 years of the signing of Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 2017.
For his part, the Lao minister thanked the Vietnamese Party, State and people for supporting Lao counterparts, and confirmed that Laos will spare no efforts to nurture the special relations between the two nations.
He informed the outcomes of the talks between the two defence ministers, which focused on cooperation orientations in the fields of training and delegation exchanges, following the spirit of agreements reached at the annual high-level meetings of the two politburos, the 38 th session of the inter-governmental committee on bilateral cooperation, and the defence cooperation protocol.-VNA
