ASEAN Chiefs of Army convene ACAMM – 23 meeting in Hanoi

In his opening remarks, Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Tan Cuong, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, and Deputy Minister of National Defense of Vietnam, highlighted ASEAN community building efforts and the contributions regional armies have made to the bloc’s overall development over recent decades.

The Deputy Minister noted that ASEAN countries have stood side by side to jointly make the bloc one of the most successful regional organisations in the world by increasingly tightening intra-regional linkages and expanding partnerships, contributing to maintaining peace, stability, and development in the region and the wider world.

ASEAN-led mechanisms, including the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+), have become increasingly prominent in promoting consultations and intra-ASEAN ties, and in boosting co-operation with partners in order to respond to common challenges, said Cuong.

Together with other defence and military forums, he outlined that ACAMM has become an important co-operation mechanism, contributing to enhancing mutual understanding and trust, whilst ramping up substantive ties in response to common regional issues, especially non-traditional security challenges.

The past three years has seen the military forces of ASEAN countries play a pivotal role in COVID-19 prevention and control efforts in each country. In this context, ACAMM has managed to maintain its activities in a flexible form by setting out practical topics to share experiences, enhance co-operation, and support each other in overcoming the impact of the pandemic.

The Deputy Minister expressed his belief that ACAMM-23 would put forward highly feasible measures that are suitable to the actual capabilities of each country’s respective army, serving to connect and maximise their resources, as well as to improve co-ordination in responding to existing non-traditional security challenges throughout the region.