General Ngô Xuân Lịch, Minister of National Defense, yesterday had a phone call with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Samdech Pichey Sena Tea Banh. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — General Ngô Xuân Lịch, Minister of National Defense, yesterday had a phone call with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Samdech Pichey Sena Tea Banh to evaluate the results of defence co-operation between the two sides in recent years and set out directions for future ties.

Affirming that Cambodia attaches great importance to relations with Việt Nam, the Cambodian Minister of National Defence expressed sincere thanks to the Ministry of Defence and the Vietnamese Army for their support and assistance to the Cambodian Army in many fields, including timely sharing of experience and providing medical supplies for COVID-19 prevention and control.

The Minister of National Defence of Cambodia congratulated the Ministry of National Defence of Việt Nam for successfully organising ASEAN military-defence conferences as the latter took on the role of Chairman of ASEAN in 2020.

For his part, Minister Ngô Xuân Lịch said Việt Nam would be ready to continue sharing experience and providing assistance to combat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and contribute to capacity-building for the Royal Cambodian Army.

Appreciating the results of co-operation between the two ministries from the beginning of the year up to now, the two sides agreed with the recommendations of expert delegations of the two countries to determine the content and areas of specific co-operation and deploy in an appropriate form in the context that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the region.

Regarding future co-operation, the two sides agreed to continue implementing the contents agreed by the leaders of the two countries' ministries, including strengthening the efficiency of cooperation mechanisms, especially defence policy dialogue mechanism; enhancing co-ordination between the two countries' border management and protection forces in preventing and combating transnational crimes, smuggling, trading and transporting addictive substances.

The two sides expressed mutual support on multilateral defence co-operation forums within the framework of ASEAN. Minister Tea Banh affirmed that the Cambodian Ministry of Defence would continue to support and work closely with Việt Nam to successfully perform its role of ASEAN Chairman. — VNS