Public Security Minister meets EU delegation head, Australian Minister of Home Affairs

At the meeting with Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti, Minister To Lam affirmed Vietnam's readiness to expand cooperation with the European Union (EU) in training, data management, and cybercrime prevention and control.

Minister To Lam suggested the two sides should strengthen information exchange, share experience in investigating and verifying crimes, and boost closer cooperation in training digital technology experts, and network administrators toward establishing a coordination mechanism to handle illegal acts in cyberspace.

For his part, Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti highlighted the strong development of cooperative relations across multiple fields between the EU and Vietnam in recent years, ,while pledging his best efforts to further develop the ties of friendship and cooperation between the EU and Vietnam in a more substantive and comprehensive manner in the time ahead.

During his online talks with Australian Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews the same day, Minister of Public Security General To Lam suggested a score of measures to step up cooperation between Vietnam and Australia as well as between his ministry and Australian partners.

He praised effective cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and Australian law enforcement agencies, adding that the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and the Australian Ministry of Home Affairs are effectively carrying out commitments and agreements signed, and the minutes of the second Vietnam-Australia Vice-Ministerial Security Dialogue in December 2019.

The third dialogue is set to be held in Australia in 2022 when the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control, Lam went on to say.

He urged both sides ramp up cooperation across a variety of fields, including security and national defence, and work on a roadmap to take the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Lam also suggested information sharing and coordination in crime combat and personnel training, saying joint efforts are needed to effectively realize cooperation agreements in place, notably the 2020 memorandum of understanding on police cooperation and organized crime prevention and the 2018 agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security hopes that the Australian Ministry of Home Affairs and Government members will continue to offer optimal conditions for both nations’ law enforcement forces to tighten their cooperation, he said.

He also suggested improving capacity for fighting drug, high-tech crimes, human trafficking, illegal migration, and non-traditional crimes.

In response, Andrews also expressed her hope that the two ministries will bolser their cooperation, especially in exit-entry management, cross-border crime combat and cyber security.