Politburo member, Defence Minister, Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich met Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand Prawit Wongsuwan and Defence Minister of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto in Bangkok on November 16.

Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich (L) and Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand Prawit Wongsuwan (Photo: VNA)

The separate meetings took place on the occasion of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) Retreat and the sixth ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus in Bangkok.

Meeting Deputy PM Wongsuwan, Lich congratulated the Thai Defence Ministry and the Royal Army on successfully holding a series of defence and military meetings in the capacity of ASEAN Chair.

He wished that the ADMM Retreat and the ADMM Plus would be successes.

Wongsuwan, for his part, thanked Viet Nam for supporting Thailand’s ASEAN Chairmanship. He pledged all possible support for the Vietnamese Defence Ministry to successfully hold defence and military meetings during its ASEAN Chair Year 2020.

Both sides shared the view that amid challenges faced by the region, it is extremely important to maintain ASEAN’s central and leading role in regional cooperation mechanisms, including the ADMM Plus.

In their meeting, Lich and his Indonesian counterpart Subianto expressed their delight at growing bilateral defence ties over the past years, especially in the exchange of delegations, personnel training and strategic research. In June, both sides held the first deputy ministerial-level defence policy dialogue, thus opening up a new cooperation mechanism between the two nations.

On the back of the Viet Nam – Indonesia strategic partnership, they agreed to continue stepping up defence link, jointly dealing with issues regarding fishermen’s encroachment on each country’s waters in a humanitarian spirit and in line with Viet Nam, Indonesia and international laws.

The Indonesian minister also expressed his support for activities to be held by Viet Nam during its ASEAN Chair Year 2020.

(Source: VNA)