 Vietnam's Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc (Photo: VNA) |
On this occasion, Ambassador Ngoc paid a courtesy visit to Defense Secretary Loyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, met with Admiral Philip Davidson, former Commander of INDOPACOM and Admiral Aquilino, Commander of INDOPACOM, and worked with representatives of INDOPACOM.
During the meetings, the two sides were pleased that after 25 years of the normalization of their relations, the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership has progressed strongly in many fields, including defense and security cooperation, making a positive contribution to the maintenance of peace, security, stability and cooperation in the region.
The US side thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for their effective support and cooperation in searching for Americans missing in the war. They said that there are many opportunities to promote defense cooperation between the two countries.
 Admiral John Aquilino, Commander of INDOPACOM (left), and Admiral Philip Davidson, former Commander of INDOPACOM (right) during the April 30 ceremony in Hawaii (Photo VOV)
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The US congratulated Vietnam on its successful presidency of ASEAN in 2020, thereby continuing to affirm ASEAN’s centrality and boost ASEAN’s solidarity and the ASEAN-US Strategic Partnership.
The US side said President Joe Biden’s administration continues to implement the free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, considering the Indo-Pacific region as the top priority in the National Security Strategy.
They emphasized freedom of navigation and overflight and rules-based orders, attaching importance to cooperation with allies and partners in the region to maintain peace, security, stability, respect for international law, including 1982 UNCLOS, and peaceful settlement of disputes amid new complicated developments in the region.