Phan Van Giang meets Australian, Japanese and Philippine defense ministers on ADMM sidelines

The meetings took place on the sidelines of the 20th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) and the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Cebu, the Philippines.

During his meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles, the two sides noted that the bilateral defense cooperation has developed positively, particularly through all-level delegation exchanges; dialogue and consultation; UN peacekeeping operations; military medicine; naval cooperation; and experience-sharing.

Phan expressed his sincere appreciation to the Australian Department of Defense for providing aircraft to transport Viet Nam's Level-2 Field Hospital Rotation 8 to the UN Mission in South Sudan.

He suggested the two sides shoulf continue to focusing on delegation exchanges, naval cooperation, search and rescue, post-war recovery efforts, and mutual support at international and regional multilateral forums.

Phan expressed his hope that Australian experts would visit Viet Nam to share experience in search and repatriation of fallen soldiers' remains, thereby contributing to Viet Nam's ongoing 500-day campaign to speed up the search for, recovery and identification of martyrs' remains.

Meeting Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, the two sides welcomed the substantive and effective development of Viet Nam–Japan relations, commensurate with their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World.

The two sides welcomed the substantive progress in ASEAN–Japan defense cooperation under the Vientiane Vision 2.0 and the Japan–ASEAN Ministerial Initiative for Enhanced Defense Cooperation (JASMINE).

A range of exchanges and cooperation activities have been conducted, including naval ship training programs, air force officer training, cybersecurity cooperation and capacity-building assistance.

At his meeting with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro, the two sides expressed their satisfaction with the comprehensive development of Viet Nam–Philippines relations over the 50 years.

In particular, the state visit to the Philippines by General Secretary and President To Lam and his spouse in recent June provided fresh impetus for stronger, more substantive and effective bilateral defense cooperation.

Phan proposed that the two sides join hands to implement cooperation activities, including delegation exchanges; logistics; search and rescue; humanitarian assistance and disaster relief at sea; cooperation between military services and arms; human resource training; defense industry; maritime security and safety; military medicine; and cybersecurity./.