Previously, on April 23, Vietnam and China held their seventh defence strategy dialogue at the deputy ministerial level in Dongxing city in the Chinese province of Guangxi.

The dialogue was co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien and Lt. Gen. Shao Yuanming, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission of China. The Vietnamese delegation also saw the participation of Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh.

During the dialogue, the two sides exchanged views on the world and regional situation and issues of mutual concern.

They held that Asia-Pacific has become an intersection point of interests and competition for influence among big countries both in and outside the region.

The emergence of non-traditional issues such as pandemics, the environment, natural disasters, extreme nationalism, terrorism and transnational crime have deeply affected peace, stability and development of nations, they said, adding that international cooperation in coping with the common challenges has become an essential need.

In that context, together with partners outside the region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has made important contributions to peace and stability in the region. Cooperation mechanisms led by ASEAN, especially the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM ), has increasingly upheld its efficiency, reflected by the fact that a growing number of partners outside the ASEAN region want to join the mechanism.

Both sides agreed that defence cooperation between Vietnam and China has been continuously expanded and conducted via various forms, focusing on different fields such as the exchange of delegations, training, military medicine, UN peacekeeping, and the exchange of experience in Party and political work in the army.

They also highly evaluated cooperative ties between border guard forces of the two countries, especially in the management and protection of borderlines, fight against crime and maintenance of security and order in border areas.

The two sides also frankly discussed sea-related issues. Chien said that as the Bien Dong Sea (internationally known as South China Sea) is the lifeblood sea route of the world, which has not only strategic economic, trade and defence-security values but also geographic strategic values, countries involved should actively cooperate with each other and maintain peace and stability in order to bring common interests.

Vietnam’s consistent stance is to address disputes at sea through peaceful measures, in the spirit of common perceptions reached by the two countries’ senior leaders, and with respect to each other’s legitimate rights and interests, on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the Bien Dong Sea (DOC) fully and effectively, working to reach a practical and effective Code of Conduct in the Bien Dong Sea (COC); and to well control disagreements at sea to avoid complicating the situation and using force or threatening to use force, he stressed.

Regarding cooperation orientations in the coming time, both sides agreed to maintain the effective implementation of signed cooperation agreements, especially the statement on joint vision on defence cooperation until 2025 between the two defence ministries, continue seriously implementing three legal documents on the border between the two countries, and closely cooperate in management and control of illegal immigration and border crossing, closely coordinate in the fight against all kinds of crime, and maintain security and order in border areas.