ASEAN enhances defence cooperation for peace and stability

15:58 | 09/29/2012

(Bqp.vn) - The 6th Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM-6) was successfully organised on May 29th in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with the approval of two important documents: the Concept Paper on Periodic Review of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM+) for convening ADMM+ every two years, and a Joint Declaration on Enhancing ASEAN Unity for a Harmonised and Secure Community.

The Vietnamese Defence Minister, General Phung Quang Thanh, led the Vietnamese defence delegation participating in ADMM-6 and made a remark at the meeting.

Right before the opening ceremony of ADMM-6, the Vietnamese Defence Minister and other heads of the defence delegations of the ASEAN members paid a courtesy call to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

After the diplomatic protocols, the Cambodian Deputy-Prime Minister-cum-Defence Minister, General Tea Banh, officially opened ADMM-6.

During the working session, delegates listened to reports on new developments of ASEAN in recent times and the results of ADSOM, ADSOM+ and ACDFIM -9.  

After that, delegates spent much time exchanging their viewpoints on defence and security issues. Top defence officials agreed to promote cooperation among the bloc’s members and between the bloc and its partners to successfully fulfill the mission of building a political and security community of ASEAN by 2015 as well as to maintain peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region.

In his remarks at the meeting, the Vietnamese Defence Minister clarified Vietnam’s assessments and views on defence and security issues in the region and world. According to him, the main stream in the world is peace, stability, cooperation and development. However, recent happenings in the world, such as conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the current financial crisis and economic recession have implied some questions that Defence Ministers of nations should take into consideration, he added.

Regarding to the situations in Southeast Asia, he said that peace, stability, cooperation and development are maintained in the region, but the region still faces both potential traditional and non-traditional security challenges and risks.   

Sharing experiences in cooperation with other countries in dealing with non-traditional security challenges, the Vietnamese Defence Minister said: “We have begun to cooperate with Cambodia in fighting natural disasters as the Cambodian Prime Minister mentioned at his meeting with heads of the participating delegations. In 2009, when a number of localities in Cambodia were isolated and deep in floods, we mobilised our military forces, including helicopters to rescue and support Cambodian people.”

Sometimes, Vietnam’s marine forces participated in searches and rescues of foreign people in accidents or in distress at high sea, he added.

Vietnam also cooperates closely with Laos in the combat against trans-national drugs trafficking and with China in dealing with the human trafficking, the Vietnamese Defence Minister stated.

On the subject of domestic security, he said that Vietnam, like other developing countries, which are in fast stages of urbanisation and industrialisation, has to face several security challenges, which mainly stem from clearing the ground for construction projects.

“However, Vietnam pays much attention to social security and safety of its people, especially poor, ethnic minority and disadvantaged ones in an effort to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. Over the past years, Vietnam has brought down 2 per cent of the poor households per year on average,” the Vietnamese Defence Minister affirmed.   

For regional security, the Vietnamese Defence Minister considered that the situations of disputes over territories and seas in the region are complex and could flare into military clashes if involved parties failed to restrain themselves.

“Disputes over sea and island sovereignty in the East Sea are facts. We should not ward off mentioning them as marine sovereign disputes among ASEAN members and among ASEAN members and outsiders occur in Southeast Asia,” he said.

The Vietnamese Defence Minister suggested that ASEAN members should do their best to preserve peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region in order to successfully build the political and security community of ASEAN by 2015. He underlined that ASEAN involved nations should have patience, try to restrain themselves and seek negotiations to solve the disputes on the basis of international laws, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), as well as fully and efficiently implement the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the East Sea.

Regarding Vietnam’s views on marine sovereign disputes, the Vietnamese Defence Minister affirmed: “To seek peaceful solutions, Vietnam is consistent with its view that for the bilateral disputes, the two involved countries should hold negotiations for the solutions but multilateral disputes should be solved in multilateral forums to find the solutions that all involved parties could accept.”

In addition, regional countries should build confidence and try to prevent clashes by enhancing bilateral and multilateral defence cooperation and ADMM and ADMM+ are the two examples. But when expanding cooperation with its partners, ASEAN should take the central role, he suggested.

The Vietnamese Defence Minister also shared with delegates Vietnam’s experiences in seeking the settlements for disputes with China. He said: “There were complex disputes over the seas between Vietnam and China some times. But relations between the two Defence Ministries and the two General Staffs remained good and exchanges and cooperation between the two Naval Forces and Border Forces were continuously maintained. Vietnam also sent its vessels to visit China and leaders of the two Defence Ministers met each other to discuss the issues in a frank and sincere manner and then agreed that the two armies should avoid military clashes in the sea. The two sides also affirmed that marine disputes between the two countries are the single unanswered issue left by history in the bilateral friendly, good and cooperative relations and that it could take a long time to deal with the issue so the two sides should seek peaceful solutions via negotiations and on the basis of international laws.”

The Vietnamese Defence Minister affirmed that Vietnam strongly supports Cambodia’s practical ideas, including the building of an ASEAN without clashes and Statement on the Master Plan on ASEAN connectivity and suggested that these ideas should immediately be passed to experts at working levels for further study and completion so that they would easily be approved and realised.

The speech of the Vietnamese Defence Minister received much support from the audience.

At the meeting, regional Defence Ministers passed the Concept Paper and agreed on the idea to hold ADMM+ in every 2 years.

At the end of the meeting, the ASEAN Defence Ministers signed the Joint Declaration, in which the ASEAN members wish to enhance the roles of ADMM and ADMM+ in promoting cooperation among ASEAN nations and between ASEAN with its partners. The Joint Declaration also reconfirms the commitments of the SEAN members to full and efficient implementation of DOC toward the approval of COC and underlines the importance of free navigation in the East Sea in accordance with the principles of international laws, including UNCLOS 1982.

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Translated by Thu Nguyen (PANO)

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