Vietnam, Malaysia seek to promote defence cooperation

Hanoi (VNA) – The Defence Ministries of Vietnam and Malaysia should consider setting up suitable dialogue mechanisms, including defence policy dialogue at the deputy minister level and joint working group on defence cooperation, thus creating a foundation for practical collaboration activities, officers have suggested.

At their meeting in Hanoi on April 7, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien and newly-appointed Malaysian Defence Attaché in Vietnam Colonel Ahmad Jais bin Tasliman noted that due to impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides were not able to implement many military-defence cooperation activities in 2020.

They agreed that after the pandemic is controlled, the two nations will conduct cooperation activities in the fields of personnel training, air force, naval, coast guard, while completing and signing a new memorandum of understanding on bilateral defence cooperation.

Chien showed his delight at the fruitful cooperation between the armies of Vietnam and Malaysia over the years, especially in the areas of personnel training and navy, and at multilateral forums as well as ASEAN-led mechanisms.

For his part, Ahmad Jais pledged that in the new position, he will work hard to promote defence cooperation between the two countries./.