Senior Lieutenant General Nguyễn Tân Cương, Chief of the General Staff of the Việt Nam People’s Army and Deputy Defence Minister, and General Yoshida Yoshihide, Chief of Staff of the Japan Self-Defence Forces Joint Staff had talks in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday. — Photo from the People's Army Newspaper

TOKYO — Senior Lieutenant General Nguyễn Tân Cương, Chief of the General Staff of the Việt Nam People’s Army and Deputy Defence Minister, held talks with General Yoshida Yoshihide, Chief of Staff of the Japan Self-Defence Forces Joint Staff in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday.

At the talks, both sides agreed that their defence cooperation has deepened and become more collaborative over the past time.

Japan and Việt Nam signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Defence Cooperation and Exchanges in October 2011, and the Joint Vision Statement on Defence Cooperation towards the next decade in April 2018, which serve as the foundation for bilateral cooperation in the field. The two countries have promoted delegation exchange, effectively maintained consultation and dialogue mechanisms, worked together in defence industry and settlement of post-war consequences, and supported each other at multilateral forums in the region, particularly the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+).

Particularly, both sides joined hands to organise the Competency Evaluation Programme for Prospective United Nations Peacekeepers (CEPPP) in Việt Nam last September, fulfilling the role of co-chairs of the 14th meeting of the Experts’ Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations Cycle 4 for the 2021-23 period within the framework of the ADMM+.

Cương and his Japanese host reached consensus on several measures to promote the bilateral defence ties, with a focus on delegation exchange, maintenance of existing consultation mechanisms, human resources training, implementation of a programme to improve capacity in the fields of diving medicine and clearance of naval mines, UN peacekeeping activities, recovery of post-war consequences, and bolstered coordination at multilateral mechanisms. — VNS