Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on August 23 visited the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA)’s Level-2 Field Hospital No. 2 at the Hanoi-based Military Medical University.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on August 23 visit the Vietnam People’s Army’s Level-2 Field Hospital No. 2 at the Hanoi-based Military Medical University. (Photo: VNA)

PM Morrison, who is on an official visit to Vietnam, highlighted the tightened national defence cooperation between Vietnam and Australia over the past 21 years.

He recalled Australia’s flying Vietnamese officers and equipment to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan on October 1, 2018.

Australia will continue to send aircraft to fly officers of Vietnam’s Level-2 Field Hospital No. 1 in South Sudan back home and carry those of the Level-2 Field Hospital No. 2 from Vietnam to the mission in November, he said.

Hospital No. 1, which has provided treatment for more than 1,100 patients in the African country, has been applauded by the international community for its professionalism and capacity, the Australian leader stressed.

He said the successful and result-oriented cooperation in peacekeeping operations has been demonstrated in the Vietnam-Australia Declaration on Joint Visions for Enhancing Defence Cooperation inked by the two defence ministers in 2018.

Besides, since 2011, Australia has helped Vietnam with English language teaching and shared its peacekeeping experience with the Vietnamese side, the guest said.

Australia wishes to step up defence cooperation with Vietnam, especially to assist the VPA in deploying forces to UN peacekeeping missions in the future, he said, expressing his hope that the two sides will push ahead with the defence cooperation programme across spheres, including maritime security, counter-terrorism, education and training.

The Australian PM said he is impressed by Vietnam’s efforts, commitments and thorough and effective preparations for joining UN peacekeeping operations.

For his part, PM Phuc highly valued Australia’s cooperation with and support to Vietnam in UN peacekeeping activities over the past time.

Joining UN peacekeeping operations is one of the major foreign policies and guidelines of the Party, State and Government of Vietnam – a peace-loving nation, he affirmed.

Through the engagement, Vietnam wants to prove itself as a prestigious and responsible nation to the international community, and to voice its wish to work together with other countries in ensuring global peace and security, he said. 

PM Morrison told the press following the trip to the hospital that he highly values relations between Vietnam and Australia, stressing that the bilateral defence cooperation will be tightened in the future.

(Source: VNA)