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Vietnamese Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich (R) and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar. |
The visit will provide an opportunity for the two sides to discuss and put forward new initiatives in order to further promote their bilateral defense cooperation, according to Mr. Vu Chien Thang, Director of the External Relations Department under the Ministry of National Defense.
The defense ties between Vietnam and India have been developing strongly and comprehensively over the past years with practical outcomes. Both sides have signed a number of cooperation documents, including the Memorandum of Understanding between the two defense ministries on bilateral defense cooperation and the Joint Vision Declaration on Vietnam-India defense cooperation for the 2015-2020 period.
The two countries’ armies have enhanced the frequency of exchanges at all levels, especially at high level as the defense ministers and the chiefs of the general staffs exchanged visits many times.
Since 2003, the two sides have conducted nine sessions of the deputy ministerial-level defense dialogue mechanism and the next session will be held in Vietnam in 2017. Since 2013, both sides began the annual young officers exchange program.
In term of training cooperation, each year, India grants dozens of scholarships for training courses of English language, command and staff, and techniques in the country.
The two ministries signed a cooperation program on issues related to UN peacekeeping operations as a foundation to implement cooperation. The Indian sides pledged to assist Vietnam in strengthening capacity to participate in UN peacekeeping activities.
Moreover, the two armies have actively supported and coordinated with each other within multilateral forums, especially the ASEAN Defense Minsters’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Since December 2014, Vietnam and India have co-chaired the conference of the experts’ working group on humanitarian mine action under the framework of the ADMM+.
Vietnam appreciates the valuable assistance of the Indian Ministry of Defense, particularly in terms of training, naval and air force cooperation.
