PM welcomes French Defense Minister’s visit for Dien Bien Phu victory ceremony

Chinh thanked Lecornu for accepting invitation to visit Vietnam and attend the Dien Bien Phu victory grand ceremony, saying both Vietnam and France have made efforts to break with the past, overcome differences, promote similarities and look toward the future.

He shared Vietnam’s development policy line, including the country’s “four Nos” defense policy meaning no partaking in military alliances, no siding with one country to act against another, no foreign military bases in the Vietnamese territory or using Vietnam as leverage to counteract other countries, and no using force or threatening to use force in international relations.

The PM noted that Vietnam which suffered great losses from the past wars cherishes peace for cooperation and development.

He recalled his France visit in 2021 and affirmed Vietnam attaches importance to the strategic partnership with the European Union country. He conveyed Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s greetings and invitation to French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Vietnam.

He also said he expects to receive French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on an official visit to Vietnam in the near future.

According to the PM, defence cooperation is one of the important pillars in the Vietnam - France strategic partnership, and France is the first Western country that established defense relations with Vietnam in 1991. He highly appreciated the results of talks between the French Minister of the Armed Forces and the Vietnamese Minister of National Defense during this visit.  

To elevate Vietnam – France partnership to new heights, Chinh proposed that the two sides continue to maintain visit exchanges at all levels, including the upcoming visit to Vietnam by French President Macron, while increasing cooperation between their ministries, agencies and localities.

He expected that the two sides would promote economic and cultural connection, and cooperation in responding to climate change and energy transition; developing the digital economy, green economy, and circular economy; building transport infrastructure projects; as well as in sustainable exploitation of seas and oceans, research and transfer of science and technology, while coordinating and supporting each other at international and regional forums in solving global issues.

The PM also proposed that France support and encourage EU countries to soon ratify the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), and lobby the European Commission to soon remove the yellow card against Vietnamese seafood exports in recognition of Vietnam’s efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

With regard to defense cooperation, Chinh asked the two sides to effectively implement existing agreements and develop new cooperation mechanisms, especially in information and experience sharing, human resource training, organization of defense exhibitions, as well as in peacekeeping, overcoming war consequences, mine clearance, and searching for those missing in action.

In particular, the PM proposed that Franc increase cooperation to preserve, restore and promote the value of the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield relic, especially in sharing archived documents about this site.

Lecornu for his part affirmed that France values ​​its partnership with Vietnam and highly appreciates the Southeast Asian country's independence and self-reliance.

Highlighting the importance of cooperation in sharing historical memories and overcoming the consequences of war between the two countries, he thanked Vietnam for actively cooperating and supporting the repatriation of French soldiers’ remains during the war, and affirmed that the two sides can completely achieve a better future of cooperation on the basis of mutual respect and international law.

The minister said his visit is to prepare for the President Macro’s upcoming visit to Vietnam and said the French president is looking forward to visiting Vietnam to further promote bilateral partnership.

He acknowledged Chinh’s proposals and said he would exchange views with relevant French agencies to work on specific cooperation projects.

He expected that the two sides would continue to make efforts to enhance defense cooperation commensurate with the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.

Both host and guest exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern. They emphasized the importance of peace, security, stability, freedom of navigation and aviation, as well as resolving disputes through peaceful means, in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and building an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the regional waters (COC).