Vietnam, US advance defense cooperation toward peace and sustainable development

THE HANOI TIMES — Vietnam and the United States will continue to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation, focusing on dialogue, consultation, post-war recovery, defense industry, training and military medicine.

Both sides will also carry out cooperation activities in humanitarian aid, disaster relief, cyber security and United Nations peacekeeping, along with tcoordination in multilateral defense mechanisms.

These were the main points agreed upon between General Phan Van Giang, Minister of National Defense of Vietnam and Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War, at their meeting today (November 2).

Hegseth’s visit is significant, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States (1995–2025). It aims to further strengthen the two countries’ Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace, cooperation and sustainable development as well as bilateral defense collaboration.

Both ministers affirmed that Vietnam–US defense cooperation has progressed in line with the directions of their senior leaders, the two ministries and existing agreements, including the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding on Promoting Bilateral Defense Cooperation and the 2024 Updated Joint Vision Statement on Defense Cooperation.

They agreed that defense relations between Vietnam and the United States have achieved many positive outcomes, especially in delegation exchanges, high-level meetings and regular dialogue and consultation mechanisms.

Cooperation in training, United Nations peacekeeping, military medicine, humanitarian aid, disaster relief and defense industry has been strengthened. The two countries have also worked closely in multilateral forums, particularly the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+).

In joint operations to search for US soldiers missing in action (MIA) during the war in Vietnam, the two sides have conducted 160 joint activities. Vietnam has handed over 994 boxes of remains to the US, of which 740 cases have been identified.

Regarding the search for fallen or missing Vietnamese soldiers, Minister Giang appreciated the information and documents provided by the United States as well as its support in improving Vietnam’s forensic identification capacity.

Since the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on this cooperation in July 2021, Vietnamese defense authorities have verified 44 of the 45 sets of records received from the US and continue to pursue search efforts.

General Giang requested that the United States continue assisting Vietnam in overcoming the consequences of war, including bomb and mine clearance and chemical contamination and ensure disbursement of agreed non-refundable aid, such as the additional US$130 million for the Bien Hoa Airport dioxin remediation project.

He highly appreciated the war aftermath cooperation between the two countries, especially the new $130 million package, which was finalized on October 31 and raises total US government aid from to US$430 million in activity.

The minister also expected that both sides would continue cooperating in the search for soldiers of both nations who died or went missing during the war. He pledged to continue close coordination and create the best possible conditions for MIA activities to accelerate progress and achieve effective results.

He also asked the US to keep supporting Vietnam in training high-quality human resources and sharing cyber security expertise.

“Vietnam welcomes US officers to study Vietnamese and join international defense courses in Vietnam,” the minister said.

Appreciating the US participation in the 2024 Vietnam International Defense Expo with senior defense officials and advanced equipment, Minister Phan Van Giang invited Secretary Pete Hegseth, the US Department of War leadership and American defense companies to attend the third expo scheduled for late 2026.

For his part, Secretary Pete Hegseth said that his visit reaffirmed the importance of bilateral defense relations in line with the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace, cooperation and sustainable development.

The United States commits to supporting a peaceful and prosperous Vietnam and seeks to promote the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to help maintain peace and stability in the region and the world, he added.

Secretary Hegseth also expressed his gratitude for Vietnam’s active support in the search for US soldiers missing during the war in Vietnam.

He emphasized that cooperation in addressing war legacies remains a top priority in the overall Vietnam–US defense partnership as it strengthens mutual trust between the two governments, militaries and peoples.

Later on, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth met Party General Secretary To Lam and President Luong Cuong.