Senior Lieutenant General Phan Văn Giang, Chief of the General Staff of the Việt Nam People’s Army, and Deputy Minister of Defence and General Yamazaki Koji, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff of Japan Self-Defence Forces, review guards of honour. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI — General Yamazaki Koji, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff of Japan Self-Defence Forces (SDF), is paying an official visit to Việt Nam from Sunday to Wednesday.

On Monday, he paid a courtesy visit to General Ngô Xuân Lịch, Minister of National Defence.

General Lịch expressed his belief that the visit would contribute to deepening their bilateral strategic partnership and create new momentum for co-operation between the Việt Nam People’s Army and the SDF of Japan.

General Koji said their defence partnership was important to the bilateral friendship and co-operation between Việt Nam and Japan, as well as to peace, collaboration and development in the region and beyond.

Earlier the same day, Senior Lieutenant General Phan Văn Giang, Chief of the General Staff of the Việt Nam People’s Army (VPA) and Deputy Minister of Defence, held talks with the top Japanese SDF officer.

During the talks, the host and guest agreed that co-operation between the VPA and SDF had been effective based on the joint vision statement signed in April 2018 between their defence ministries on bilateral defence relations.

The two sides have actively held exchanges and consultations, as well as opened training courses and professional exchanges on flight safety, aviation medicine, underwater medicine, aviation rescue, information technology, cyber security, and sappers’ participation in the United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Bilateral coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+), had been further strengthened.

Việt Nam supported Japan’s initiatives on activities within the framework of the Vientiane Vision to promote Japan-ASEAN defence co-operation.

The country also backed Japan’s active engagement in co-operation mechanisms that helped maintain peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

The Vietnamese side suggested Japan expand training and increase the number of scholarships offered to Vietnamese students, especially in technology and Japanese. 

Việt Nam invited Japanese senior officers to attend international courses at the Việt Nam National Defence Academy and Japanese military students to learn Vietnamese.

The two sides agreed to step up co-operation in scientific and military medical research, and sharing experience in natural disaster relief, humanitarian aid, management of hospitals, and transfer of new technologies.

They will also implement collaboration in military shipbuilding and goods production.

Việt Nam asked for Japan’s help to train technical experts in the defence industry and training highly-skilled Vietnamese workers in Japan.

Việt Nam also hoped to learn from Japan’s experience in state management of its defence industry in a market economy, and receive assistance to build strategies and develop its peacekeeping force. — VNS