Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

□ Vice Minister Park Jae-min of the Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea and Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defence Minister of the Ministry of National Defence Vietnam, held a video conference to exchange views on the two countries' COVID-19 response and on mutual defense exchange cooperation on July 6.

□ The two sides agreed that the two countries have developed special relations in various fields including economic and defense exchange cooperation based on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership after establishing diplomatic relations in 1992. Also, they agreed to further promote the close cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

□ Vice Minister Park highly acclaimed the efforts of Vietnam Ministry of National Defence in order to continue the multilateral cooperation as the chair of ASEAN despite the COVID-19 situation, and expressed his strong support to cooperate for a successful ADMM-Plus meeting.
   ◦ Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh stated that the bilateral defense exchange cooperation has been closely maintained through successful Defense Strategic Dialogues and continuous high-level exchanges, and he also hoped to contribute to the international effort for peacekeeping by strengthening bilateral cooperation regarding UN Peacekeeping Operations(PKO).

□ While assessing the success of both countries in responding to COVID-19, Vice Minister Park introduced the ROK government's response measures, and in particular explained that the current COVID-19 situation is being stably managed through active and pre-emptive disease prevention and control measures along with voluntary participation of the people.

   ◦ Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh highly acclaimed the ROK government's endeavor to prevent, control, and isolate the spread of COVID-19. And he introduced the COVID-19 response implemented by the Vietnam government and hoped to continue the exchange of experiences and responses to COVID-19 with the ROK.

□ Vice Minister Park Jae-min and Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh shared the understanding in the need of international solidarity and cooperation as non-traditional security threats like COVID-19 can not be overcome by a single country, and the two sides agreed to continue the close cooperation between the ROK and Vietnam.