Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Friday hosted military leaders from Cambodia, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Russia, Singapore and Thailand at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) and the 30th anniversary of the All-People Defence Festival.
Speaking at the reception, Phuc highlighted that Vietnam’s defence policy is for peace maintenance and self-defence, which is affirmed in Vietnam’ Defence White Paper 2019.
Vietnam persists settling outstanding problems, differences and disputes by peaceful means based on international law; not joining military alliances, not joining one country against another, not letting foreign countries set up military bases or use Vietnam’s territories against others; and not using force or threatening to use force in international relations, the leader said.
He also said that over the past 75 years, the VPA had continuously developed, adding that implementing the defence policy of independence and self-mastery, Vietnam attached importance to developing and strengthening defence cooperation with other countries based on respect to each other’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, for the top goals of peace, independence and development.
Foreign military leaders expressed their admiration for the VPA’s exploits and Vietnam’s national construction and development, and pointed to the VPA’s special characteristics, namely the combatant spirit and tradition.
They also wished Vietnam successfully shoulder the chairmanship of Asean in 2020 and the non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in the 2020-2021 term, and held that the implementation of the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) mechanism helped ensure security in the region and the world over.
Phuc said the current situation in the world and the region continued to see rapid, complex and hard-to-predict developments, adding the regional and global security challenges and risks were requiring joint efforts from all the countries inside and outside the region.
He said Vietnam highly valued the outcome of the defence cooperation over the recent past between Vietnam and foreign countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally, the leader said, stressing that the ADMM+ is the defence-security cooperation mechanism of the top importance in the region.
He also asked foreign countries to continue supporting Vietnam to successfully shoulder its Asean and UNSC roles.
VIET NAM NEWS/ANN
