Vientiane (VNA) – Deputy Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien led a Vietnamese delegation to attend the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials' Meeting (ADSOM) in Vientiane, Laos, on September 25.
In his opening remarks, Lieutenant General Somphone Mittaphone, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Lao People's Army, appreciated the support from other ASEAN member countries for Laos as Chair of the bloc this year.
He said the theme of the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2024 – "ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience", as well as the theme of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) and the ADMM+ this year – "ASEAN: Together for Peace, Security and Resilience" emphasise Laos' commitment to promoting peace and security in the region.
At the ADSOM, heads of the delegations extended sympathies for Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar on the losses caused by Typhoon Yagi, hoping that the countries will soon overcome the consequences of this devastating storm.
The meeting listened to reports on the outcomes of the ASEAN Defense Senior Officials' Working Group (ADSOM WG), the 17th Annual Meeting of the Network of ASEAN Defence and Security Institutes (NADI-17) and the 21st ASEAN Chiefs of Defence Forces Meeting (ACDFM-21), along with defence cooperation among the member states.
Regarding the ASEAN Military Intelligence Community (AMIC) initiative, proposed by Vietnam and approved at the ACDFM, Chien said that Vietnam will organise the first AMIC leaders' meeting in Hanoi this November to implement the initiative, and it hopes to that ASEAN countries will participate in this conference.
During the meeting, heads of the ASEAN delegations also approved and agreed to submit new initiatives to the ADMM. They also reached consensus on the draft ADMM joint statement and discussed the preparations for the ADSOM+, ADMM and ADMM+, as well as the observership programme for the 2024-2027 cycle.
On the sidelines of the ADSOM, Deputy Minister Chien had bilateral meetings with Lao Deputy Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Vongkham Phommakon, Lieutenant General Somphone Mittaphone, and heads of the delegations from Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia to discuss Vietnam's defence ties with the countries./.
