Vietnam attends ASEAN-Japan Deputy Defense Ministers' Meeting

On October 7, Deputy Minister of National Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the 6th ASEAN-Japan Deputy Defense Ministers' Meeting in Yokohama, Japan.

Scene of the 6th ASEAN-Japan Deputy Defense Ministers' Meeting.

This conference focused on discussing two main topics: “Current situation related to maritime security in the Asia-Pacific region” and “Ways to maintain/improve the maritime security situation in the region.”

The conference took place in the context of all parties paying special attention to peace and stability at sea because maritime security has an impact on the entire security, political and economic situation of the region and the world.

Responding to a VNA reporter, Deputy Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said that the reason why Japan and ASEAN are interested in common security cooperation is because there is no conflict of strategic interests between the parties while the sharing of interests is increasingly large in many aspects such as politics, economics, and geostrategy in defense and security.

ASEAN countries have increasingly more security challenges and interests that are in line with issues of common concern to Japan. Therefore, this relationship is very good, equal, mutually beneficial, meeting the requirements of Japan and ASEAN while contributing to peace, stability and security in the region and the world.

He said ASEAN and Japan also share concerns about recent developments at sea, including in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, related to acts that disrespect international law, violate countries' sovereignty, and especially affect maritime security and safety, and affect freedom of trade.

All countries are aware of the need to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN and Japan in the security fields as well as with other countries so that the seas become peaceful, stable and less challenging, and the parties need to propose countermeasures to prevent these challenges from leading to the risk of military conflict.

To address security challenges, Japan has put forward a number of initiatives and specific areas of cooperation with ASEAN countries in non-traditional areas such as disaster relief, anti-piracy, search and rescue, etc.

Maritime disputes are also of particular concern to countries, and all countries affirm that there must be a common understanding of the law, no double standards and no different understandings of international law, peaceful conduct, no use of force or threat of force; when disputes arise, the parties need to negotiate both bilaterally and multilaterally to resolve the issue.

Assessing the progress in Japan-ASEAN relations in the field of defense and security, Deputy Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh affirmed that the first step is that all sides have reached a common understanding that it is necessary to cooperate on security and that besides the benefits, there are still challenges.

That is the most important foundation for sustainable cooperation. Deputy Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said that the second step is that ASEAN and Japan have built trust regarding the purpose of cooperation between the parties for common interests, peace and stability.

According to Mr. Vinh, countries need to cooperate more closely to have a code of conduct in the East Sea that reassures ASEAN countries, partners and countries with interests in the East Sea.

At the conference, the parties agreed to take step-by-step actions according to the capacity of each country, to ensure common interests for all participating countries. ASEAN countries and Japan found specific cooperation contents that 10 ASEAN countries and Japan could participate in such as cooperation activities at sea, search and rescue, cooperation in defense industry to serve maritime security and especially cooperation to propose a common perception of behavior at sea by peaceful means, on the basis of international law.

Cooperation between Japan and ASEAN, including defense and security relations, has been growing strongly in recent years. Japan was the first country to promote the organization of defense conferences and build multilateral relations with ASEAN in addition to bilateral cooperation between Tokyo and each member country of the Association.

According to Vietnam+