General Phan Van Giang, who is on an official visit to China, affirmed that the Party, Government, army, and people of Vietnam always keep in mind the enormous assistance from their Chinese counterparts for the struggle for national liberation and reunification in the past as well as the national construction at present.
He noted that Vietnam is persistent in the foreign policy of independence self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development; and always views the maintenance of a peaceful and stable security environment as one of the key factors of cooperation for common development, and welcomes all countries’ cooperation initiatives and mechanisms for the purposes of peace, stability, common development, and common interests of the region.
For his part, He noted China attaches importance to the consolidation and development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with Vietnam.
Both sides shared the view that a number of cooperation activities between the two armies have been carried out in 2023 after a long period of the COVID-19 pandemic. They held that there remains much room for their countries to develop defence cooperation, and that in the time ahead, Vietnam and China should maintain frequent high-level mutual visits and meetings between leaders of the central military commissions and defence ministries, continue organising the border defence friendship exchange, step up sharing experience in the Party-related and political works in the armies.
With regard to the East Sea/South China Sea issue, they perceived that it is necessary to exchange opinions in a sincere and straightforward manner, properly control differences, jointly seek measures for settling issues appropriately and in line with the common perceptions reached between the leaders of the two Parties and the two countries, fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and soon finalise an effective and substantive code of conduct on the waters (COC) matching international law.
Previously, on October 27, General Phan Van Giang and a high-ranking delegation of the Ministry of Defence visited the Vietnamese Embassy in China.
