President calls for stronger Việt Nam-Indonesia defence cooperation

President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc received Indonesian Minister of Defence Prabowo Subianto on Friday in Hà Nội as part of the latter's visit to Việt Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Friday called on the defence ministries of Việt Nam and Indonesia to bolster consultations and support each other at multilateral forums, and maintain the common stance of ASEAN on regional issues, including the South China Sea.

He made the call while hosting a reception for Indonesian Minister of Defence Prabowo Subianto, during which he underlined the countries’ mechanisms such as the defence policy dialogue play a major role in exchanging viewpoints, handling bottlenecks and promptly guiding bilateral defence ties.

He hailed the official Việt Nam visit by Subianto and a high-ranking delegation of the Indonesian Defence Ministry to attend the ongoing SEA Games 31, saying it would promote bilateral defence cooperation in a practical and effective manner, contributing to the Việt Nam-Indonesia strategic partnership for peace, prosperity and development of each country, the region and the world, as well as to strengthening mutual trust.

The Vietnamese leader highly valued the results of talks between the two countries’ defence ministers and voiced his delight at their thriving defence relations. 

The countries have launched measures to consolidate political trust; fully implement signed cooperation agreements in an efficient and practical way, and bolster collaboration between the armies, especially regular exchanges between the countries’ navies and coast guards for timely resolution of maritime incidents; and exchange intelligence and defence industry information, as well as participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations. 

He affirmed that Việt Nam treasured relations with Indonesia, which is the country’s leading strategic partner in the region, and strove to foster ties in a stable, sustainable and comprehensive fashion across all fields, particularly economy, security, defence, culture, education, tourism and people-to-people exchange.

Việt Nam appreciated Indonesia’s contributions to upholding ASEAN’s central role and solidarity, especially the country’s active role in promoting the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus on the situation in Myanmar adopted by ASEAN leaders in April 2021.

Việt Nam would support Indonesia as Chair of ASEAN next year and hoped the country would further contribute to building an ASEAN Community of solidarity, development, peace and stability that ensures security and freedom of navigation in the region adhering to international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he said.

President Phúc said that with high consensus between him and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo, the two nations needed to raise cooperation in addressing maritime issues and build a regular mechanism in this regard.

For his part, the visiting Indonesian Minister conveyed President Widodo’s regards to President Phúc and congratulated Việt Nam on the successful opening ceremony of SEA Games 31.

He pledged that after his visit, Indonesia would bolster cooperation with Việt Nam’s navy and coast guard forces in dealing with maritime issues. 

Furthermore, Indonesia wished to learn from Việt Nam’s experience in defence, fisheries and agricultural development, he said, adding that the defence ministry stands ready to partner with its Vietnamese counterpart in technology and military medical training. — VNS

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