7th VN-Australia diplomatic–defense strategic dialogue organized

The event was co-chaired by Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Viet Nam People’s Army Rear Admiral Nguyen Trong Binh, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, Australia’s Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Richard Maude and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defense Peter Tesch.

The two sides reviewed the strong developments in bilateral relations and reaffirmed their countries’ importance in each other’s foreign policies.

They agreed that defense collaboration is an important pillar in the Viet Nam – Australia strategic partnership, agreeing to continue effectively carrying out bilateral and multilateral defense cooperation activities on the basis of the 2010 memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation and the 2018 joint vision statement on enhancing defense ties.

Regarding the recent East Sea situation, they highlighted the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and navigation in the waters. They emphasized the need to resolve disputes by peaceful means in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and to promote negotiations on an effective, substantive and legally binding code of conduct in the waters.

Both sides also voiced concern about emerging challenges like terrorism, cyber security, energy security and climate change, consenting to increase information sharing and coordinate closely within multilateral and bilateral frameworks to minimize negative impact of these challenges.

At the dialogue, Australia affirmed that it will keep working closely with ASEAN and supporting the bloc’s central role. It is also ready to assist Viet Nam to fulfill the roles as ASEAN Chair in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020 – 2021.

By Thuy Dung