Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh and other ASEAN officials at the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Retreat in Singapore last February (Photo: VNA)

Heads of the delegations discussed reports on the outcomes of defence cooperation among ASEAN nations, the meetings of ASEAN militaries’ research agencies, and the preparations for the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus.

Participants scrutinized the groups defence cooperation initiatives, such as the ASEAN Peacekeeping Centres Network and a network of ASEAN chemical, biological and radiological defence experts.

Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh said together with Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, Vietnam has been chosen by the UN to become a training site for peacekeeping forces of the region. He expressed Vietnam’s readiness to play a more active role to help improve ASEAN’s peacekeeping capacity and wants to boost connections with other countries in joint exercises, search and rescue operations, and the sharing of experience in military medicine.

Within the framework of the two meetings, Deputy Minister Vinh also had bilateral meetings with heads of the delegations of Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan and the US.