COVID-19 fight: Vietnamese Embassy presents gift to South Africa's hard-hit province
	Vietnamese officer makes masks for UN staffs in South Africa
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Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence. Photo: qdnd.vn

During his phone talks with the South African Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans on July 9, Vinh stressed the importance of international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic.

He briefed on Vietnam’s efforts in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, noting that thanks to the involvement of the whole political system, with the army playing a core role, Vietnam has successfully controlled the epidemic.

The Vietnamese official also shared COVID-19 prevention results of Vietnam’s UN peacekeeping forces in the UN Peacekeeping Missions in Africa, especially efforts and active response made by members of the 2nd level-2 field hospital in South Sudan.

For his part, Thabang Makwetla praised Vietnam’s success in the fight against COVID-19, expressing the hope that Vietnam will support his country to soon repel the disease.

The two sides reviewed the bilateral defence cooperation and discussed orientations for stronger ties in the coming time.

They noted with pleasure that the cooperation has been on track since the visit of the South African Minister of Defence and Military Veterans to Vietnam in August last year, in line with the agreement on defence cooperation signed in 2006.

They demonstrated a determination to further enhance collaboration in the fields of training, cyber security, UN peacekeeping operation, military medicine and defence industry.

Particularly, the two sides also agreed to expand military medicine cooperation as part of efforts to respond to non-traditional security challenges, stressing that it is necessary to focus on this work in the time to come.

The two sides will continue to maintain the Defence Policy Dialogue mechanism as a foundation to share views on issues of common concern, while taking measures to strengthen their defence ties.

The Vietnamese official also informed his counterpart about Vietnam’s plans to organise activities during the year it acts as ASEAN Chair 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021.

He took the occasion to invite leaders of the South African Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans to attend a programme for guests hosted by the Chair of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM ).

Thabang highly valued Vietnam’s position and role in the international arena and the region, affirming that his country will back Vietnam’s initiatives, thus contributing to regional and global peace, stability and development.

Mourners in personal protective equipment carry the coffin of a Cape Town taxi driver who died of COVID-19. Photograph: Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty South Africa has registered 225,000 cases of COVID-19, of which 107,000 have recovered and 3,600 have died. After months when the continent appeared to have been spared the worst of the outbreak, African countries are now recording an accelerating spread of the disease. As of July 9, Africa had 512,039 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 11,915 deaths, data from governments and the World Health Organization showed. Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Algeria accounted for 71% of infections.

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