A Vietnamese top defence delegation led by
Defence Minister, General Phung Quang Thanh, is to depart to Cambodia on May 27
th to attend the sixth ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM-6) in Phnom Penh.
Before travelling to the importance regional event, the Defence Minister agreed
to answer some questions from People’s Army Newspaper’s reporters.
Reporter: Mister Defence Minister, what does
the Vietnamese defence delegation expect to contribute to ADMM-6 with its
objectives to promote regional defence cooperation in the direction toward an
ASEAN community by 2015?
Defence Minister: A strong, united
and closely connected ASEAN will bring benefits to the region as a whole and
Vietnam in particular. Promoting defence cooperation among ASEAN members,
including the organisation of the annual event with the participation of
regional top defence officials, is one of the three pillars of the ASEAN
community and plays a key role.
The
Vietnamese defence delegation will participate in ADMM-6 with its high
responsibility and activeness and will bring into full play the results of
regional defence cooperation over the past time to promote confidence, peace,
stability, cooperation and development in the region. The Vietnamese defence
delegation will give ideas on security of common concern and national interest.
The participation of the defence delegation is on one hand to realise the
Vietnamese Party’s and State’s foreign policies for national interests and to
improve the status of the Vietnam People’s Army on the international arena.
Reporter: What do you think about the
proposals by other ASEAN members to increase the frequency of the ASEAN Defence
Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM+)?
Defence Minister: ADMM+, which draws
the participation of top defence officials of the 10 ASEAN members and its 8
partners, namely, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand,
Russia and the USA, was first held on October 12 th 2010 in Hanoi. This could
be seen as a milestone in ASEAN history. ADMM+ is aimed at promoting unity,
understanding and confidence as well as practical cooperation among regional
nations via forums and bilateral meetings.
At the
first ADMM+ in Vietnam, the top defence officials defined five priorities for
cooperation: humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR); maritime security;
military medicine; anti-terrorism; peacekeeping operations. The first HADR
session, which was held in China in November 2011 and co-chaired by Vietnam and
China, launched a number of proposals, such as information, experience, ideas
and good practice exchanges among members to enhance regional action
coordination; augmenting abilities via seminars and training programmes in
early warning, deployment of quick-response forces; on-the-spot management;
command, control and logistics and first joint manoeuvre in 2013. The second
HADR session is expected to take place later in 2012.
Although
the ADMM+ mechanism was newly founded, ADMM+ has become a regional prospective
security arrangement, which, in fact, has drawn much attention from countries
across the world. As far as I know, several other countries, say Mongolia,
Canada and France, wish to join the arrangement.
Today,
global and regional situations have become more complex and fluid due to the
debt crisis in Europe, armed conflicts in the Middle East and northern Africa
as well as earthquakes and tsunami in Asia. These situations have strong
impacts on Asia-Pacific security in general and Southeast Asia security in
particular. Generally speaking, the region remains comparatively stable in
security terms, dynamic in economic growth and plays an increasing role in
solving international issues but it also faces complex security challenges in
both traditional and non-traditional terms. This has led to the idea to hold
ADMM+ in every 2 years.
The
idea expresses the common desire of ASEAN to bring into full play the practical
value of this arrangement and develop it as important foundations to promote defence
and security strategic cooperation to firmly ensure regional peace and
stability. Via such a forum, ASEAN could take advantage of other resources from
its partners to successfully build an ASEAN political and security community by
2015. The more often ADMM+ is held, the more opportunities ASEAN would have.
But how
ASEAN acts in this forum is even more important. For its part, ASEAN should
continue to play the central role and to function as the engine for ADMM+. In
addition, all ASEAN members should heighten their responsibilities and actively
participate in cooperation for the common interests, seriously comply with
international laws, respect national sovereignty and avoid intervening in other
countries’ domestic affairs.
Reporter: What do you assess and expect about
ASEAN in 2012 presided by Cambodia?
Defence Minister: I strongly believe
that Cambodia in general and the Cambodian Defence Ministry in particular with
their high responsibilities for the common development of the bloc will
successfully fulfill its mission as the ASEAN Chair in 2012. In fact, the way
the host has carefully prepared for its Chairmanship and the topic “ASEAN: one
community, one destiny” set by Cambodia could allow us to believe in a
successful year.
The
Vietnamese Defence Ministry will actively back the Cambodian Defence Ministry
to well organise defence and military conferences in 2012 in an effort to boost
defence cooperation and consolidate peace, security and development in the
region.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. Defence Minister.
Translated
by Thu Nguyen
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