At the reception, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang - Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission, Deputy Minister of National Defense - expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Ito Naoki for always paying attention to promoting cooperation between the two countries, the two Ministries of National Defense as well as between the Vietnam People's Army and the Japan Self-Defense Forces; and affirmed that Vietnam always values the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the world with Japan.
Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang emphasized that bilateral defense cooperation in the past time has been constantly expanding, going deeper and becoming more and more effective and practical.
The two sides continue to maintain the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms such as Deputy Ministerial Defense Policy Dialogue, Consultation with Staff Officers of the three military branches Navy, Army and Air Force.
Cooperation in training, defense industry, technology transfer, and war recovery also achieved positive results.
Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang requested the Ambassador to continue to pay attention to, direct, and implement the contents of Vietnam - Japan defense cooperation to achieve substantial results, focusing on the following areas:
Exchange delegations at all levels, especially high-level; maintain the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms, especially the Deputy Minister-level Defense Policy Dialogue mechanism; Deputy Minister-level Dialogue of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Ministry of National Defense; military and military service cooperation; effectively implement the Letter of Intention on training cooperation (signed in December 2025); cooperation in military medicine, cyber security, United Nations peacekeeping, war recovery, mutual support at multilateral mechanisms and forums, especially within the framework of ADMM+.
On this occasion, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang respectfully invited leaders of the Ministry of National Defense, the Self-Defense Forces and Japanese defense enterprises to attend the 3rd Vietnam International Defense Exhibition in Hanoi in December 2026.
For his part, Ambassador Ito Naoki highly appreciated the cooperative relationship between Japan and Vietnam, in which defense cooperation is one of the important pillars. Ambassador Ito Naoki hoped that in the coming time, the two sides will continue to coordinate to implement the agreed cooperation contents, continuing the good achievements of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's official visit to Vietnam recently, especially in the field of defense.
In which, focus on areas such as: United Nations peacekeeping, delegation exchanges, high-level contacts, training and cooperation, thereby contributing to further promoting the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the world.
