An international workshop on maritime security in Southeast Asia opened in Ho Chi Minh City on March 29.

The two-day event gathered 30 experts and scholars from Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The workshop offers a chance for experts and scholars to exchange views on maritime security and the sea environment and seek measures to boost maritime security cooperation in the region.

Topics of the workshop relate to such issues as legal frameworks for maritime security and the sea environment, search and rescue and environmental protection.

This is the second of four workshops of the same theme co-organised by the Pacific Forum under the US Centre For Strategic and International Studies and research institutes in the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.-VNA