Defence Minister meets Cambodian, Chinese counterparts in Phnom Penh: Minister of National Defence General Phan Van Giang (L) meets General Tea Banh. (Photo: VNA)

The two Ministers discussed a number of regional and global issues of shared concern, and sought ways to further promote their partnership in the future.

They agreed to foster the cooperation of the two Defence Ministries with relevant agencies of both sides to organise defence collaboration activities, thus making contributions to the success of the Vietnam-Cambodia, Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Year 2022 and the relations between the two militaries.

General Giang congratulated the Ministry of National Defence of Cambodia for successfully hosting the ASEAN military-defence meetings for 2022, and expressed his belief that the ADMM Retreat and the ninth ADMM Plus will also be a success, making important contributions to maintaining the central role of the ASEAN.

General Giang also invited General Tea Banh to visit Vietnam for the International Defence Expo that Vietnam will host for the first time in December.

General Gianghad a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe

The same day, General Giang also had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe, during which he congratulated China on the success of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and highlighted Vietnam’s appreciation of CPC General Secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s invitation for Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to visit China right after the congress.

Defence Minister meets Cambodian, Chinese counterparts in Phnom Penh

For his part, Minister Wei affirmed that defence partnership is one of the important factors helping enhance the friendship and cooperation between the two Parties and States, benefiting people of both sides as well as peace, stability, cooperation and development in each country, the region and the world.

He said that China paid great attention to the visit by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong earlier this month, considering it as a special event for the two sides as well as the Vietnam-China relations.

At the meeting, the two Ministers agreed that despite COVID-19 impacts, defence cooperation between the two countries has been maintained with flexible and effective forms.

Regarding the future cooperation orientations, they underlined the need to increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially at the high level, and the effective implementation of existing cooperation mechanisms such as the defence strategy dialogue at the Deputy Ministerial level, the border defence friendship exchange, as well as collaboration in Party and political affairs, and information exchange and cooperation between armed forces, academies, and schools. They pledged to continue to coordinate with and support each other at multilateral military and defence forums.

The two Ministers also agreed to deal with international issues related to the two countries with a strategic view for common interest and through peaceful measures in line with international law.

General Giang affirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of settling disputes through peaceful measures in the spirit of respecting each other's rights and interests, and coping with sea-related issues through peaceful measures in conformity with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, as well as the promotion of negotiation mechanisms on the sea and discussions on development cooperation. He also stressed the significance of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and the building of a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea that is suitable to international law, including the UNCLOS 1982.

The two Ministers also concurred to foster defence cooperation to realise collaboration contents reached by high-ranking leaders of the two sides during Party General Secretary Trong’s visit, thus boosting the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a healthy and stable manner.

The ADMM Retreat opened in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on November 22.