Sen. Lieut. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien (R) receives Derek Chollet, senior policy advisor to the US Secretary of State. (Photo: qdnd.vn)

Chien noted that defense cooperation between the two countries has been flourishing in the spirit of the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation and the 2015 Joint Vision Statement on Defense Relations.

Both sides have exchanged delegations, undertaken joint projects on wartime aftermath settlement, conducted search and rescue training courses, and taken part in humanitarian assistance, along with sharing experience in joining United Nations peacekeeping operations, in line with the framework of the Viet Nam – US comprehensive partnership.

Viet Nam values and prioritizes cooperation with the US in overcoming the consequences of the war in the country, Chien told Chollet.

He expressed his hope that the US would continue to pay attention to and further promote cooperation in this field, especially in speeding up progress of a number of projects dealing with dioxin contamination and improving the quality of life of people exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin.

He suggested that the US support Viet Nam to improve its UN peacekeeping capacity, and donate additional vaccines, therapeutic drugs, medical equipment and supplies for COVID-19 prevention and control, while simultaneously supporting each other on issues of common concern at regional and international forums.

For his part, Chollet highly appreciated the positive cooperation results that the two countries have recorded since the normalization of bilateral relations, including the defense cooperation. He shared Chien’s view on the importance of cooperation in overcoming war aftermath in Viet Nam and said the US will continue to make efforts to improve the work in the coming time.