Vietnam and Canada to formalise new defense ties.

Last week, during the visit of a high-ranking Canadian official to Vietnam, both sides indicated that they may formalize a new defense policy dialogue to advance security cooperation, Prashanth Parameswaran reports on The Diplomat. The proposal highlighted the continuing efforts by the two sides to further boost their defense collaboration.

Vietnamese soldiers should progressively be issued new assault rifles based on the Galil to be manufactured in a new local plant built in the framework of a cooperation agreement with Israel Military Industries (Picture source: People’s Army Newspaper)

The defense aspect of the relationship was in the spotlight with the visit of Derek Joyce, the director of international security policy of Canada’s Defense ministry, to Hanoi. Joyce was there for a prearranged trip that effectively constituted the first such high-level interaction between the two sides in 2019.

According to the Vietnam defense ministry’s account of the talks held between Joyce and Vinh, Vinh indicated that there was much room to develop the defense relationship further. Among the areas cited for further advancement included personnel training, UN peacekeeping operations, and defense industry. There were also references to more general shared priorities, including support for multilateralism, with Canada looking to participate in the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), of which Vietnam is already a member. Hanoi will chair ASEAN in 2020.

But of the various outcomes, , Prashanth Parameswara comments, perhaps the most interesting one was Vietnam’s reaffirmation of its readiness to establish a new defense policy dialogue mechanism with Canada. The new defense policy dialogue mechanism, which would be held at the deputy defense minister level, is along the lines of a similar mechanism Vietnam has with a long list of key partners and would help create a regular forum to advance defense collaboration.