On January 30, at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence, General Nguyen Tan Cuong - Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, Deputy Minister of National Defence received Vice Admiral Mark Hammond - Commander of the Royal Australian Navy on the occasion of his visit and working trip to Vietnam.
Affirming that Vietnam always values relations with Australia, General Nguyen Tan Cuong said that the official upgrade of the two countries' Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 is an important milestone, creating favorable conditions to further promote cooperation in all fields, including defense cooperation.
General Nguyen Tan Cuong emphasized that in the past time, based on the Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation in 2010 and the Joint Vision Statement on promoting defense cooperation in 2018, Vietnam - Australia defense cooperation has been actively implemented in areas such as: Delegation exchange, dialogue - consultation, training, United Nations peacekeeping, military and military service cooperation, war consequence remediation, multilateral cooperation on defense, especially within the framework of ADMM+.
Appreciating the results of the previous working session between Vice Admiral Tran Thanh Nghiem - Commander of the Navy and Commander of the Royal Australian Navy, General Nguyen Tan Cuong affirmed that the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense will create the most favorable conditions for the two countries' navies to implement cooperation contents.
In the coming time, based on the direction of senior leaders and the Ministries of National Defense of the two countries, General Nguyen Tan Cuong hopes that the two sides will continue to cooperate closely to further promote cooperation between military and military services.
In which, creating conditions for bilateral naval cooperation, focusing on a number of key contents including: Strengthening cooperation in training and sharing information and experience; rescue and relief...
On this occasion, General Nguyen Tan Cuong respectfully invited leaders of the Australian Defence Force and Royal Navy and Australian defense enterprises to Vietnam to attend the 3rd Vietnam International Defense Exhibition, scheduled for December 2026.
At the working session, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond thanked the hospitality and thoughtfulness of the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, the Navy, and expressed his wish to have the opportunity to return to Vietnam.
Vice Admiral Mark Hammond believes that 2026 will be an important and historic year, opening up many opportunities for cooperation between the two Ministries of National Defense in general, and between the navies of the two countries in particular. Thereby, contributing to promoting bilateral cooperation relations to become increasingly developed and effective.
