Vietnam represented at 20th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore

Hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the event draw the participation of more than 550 delegates who are defence and security officers and scholars from 41 countries.

The two-day dialogue covers seven plenary sessions and six special sessions that focus on various issues such as security in cyberspace competition, challenges to developing military capacity in the Asia-Pacific region, nuclear threats and challenges to regional security, along with trends relating to defence ties in the Indo-Pacific.

On the sidelines of the dialogue, Deputy Minister Chien met with leaders of defence ministries and delegation heads of some participating countries, including Chinese Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen. Li Shangfu.

Deputy Chien and Chinese Minister Li shared the view that Vietnam-China defence co-operation has received attention from all-level leaders of both sides, saying it is growing practically and is becoming an important pillar of the bilateral comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership.

Chinese Minister Li emphasised that the defence links have been further enhanced in accordance with the common perceptions reached by high-ranking leaders of the two countries, especially after the official visit to China by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong.

In response, Deputy Minister Chien suggested the two sides continue with delegation exchanges and other collaboration activities in border and sea management and defence, whilst seeking to soon organise the eighth Border Defence Friendship Exchange and the defence strategic dialogue.

At a meeting held with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Donald Marles, the two officials noted that bilateral defence ties have made new strides across all fields, ranging from delegation exchange to training and maritime security, especially UN peacekeeping operations.

They concurred to maintain co-operation in the agreed areas, firstly by accelerating the signing of an agreement on the partnership in peacekeeping, as well as upgrading the Joint Vision for Enhancing Defence Cooperation.

Deputy Minister Chien thanked Australia for its support in transporting Vietnam’s level-2 field hospitals to UN peacekeeping missions.

In this regard, Australian Deputy PM Marles affirmed that Australia will help the Southeast Asian nation to transport its level-2 field hospital rotation 5 to South Sudan later this month.

Meeting with Japanese Vice Minister of Defence Masami Oka, Deputy Minister Chien called on the Japanese side to further assist Vietnam in peacekeeping operations in terms of training and experience sharing.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese official also held meetings with representatives of the Singaporean Ministry of Defence, in addition to Assistant Deputy Minister of Canada Peter Hammerschmidt.