Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, said at the ARF Defence Officials’ Dialogue Video Conference in Hanoi on July 1.

At the video conference

Delegates discussed cooperation in military medicine, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and coping with communicable diseases, as well as Vietnam’s initiatives to promote defence-security cooperation in the ARF and increase connectivity between the ARF and the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus.

He expressed his concern over difficulties ARF member countries are encountering due to COVID-19 but believes they will soon join hands to overcome all difficulties to build a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Asia-Pacific region.

ASEAN successfully organised a virtual exercise to prevent COVID-19 and shared experience in the task as well as promoted defence cooperation in dealing with non-traditional security challenges, he said.

He hopes there will be more links in defence cooperation between ADMM Plus and ARF.

Founded in 1967, ASEAN has ten member countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam./.VNA