HÀ NỘI — Defence minister General Ngô Xuân Lịch and his Japanese counterpart Nobuo Kishi agreed to implement national defence cooperation after the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control during their phone talks on Monday.

Cooperation will focus on fields such as human resource training, military medical cooperation, peacekeeping and recovering after the consequences of war.

The two sides discussed international and regional issues of concern and COVID-19 prevention and control. They spoke highly of military medical experts of the two countries for promptly sharing experience in fighting the pandemic.

Defence minister Lịch congratulated his Japanese counterpart for being elected and said he hoped that in the new position, the minister would have important contributions to help promote the defence cooperation between the two countries more deeply and effectively in the future.

Minister Lịch thanked the Government and Ministry of Defence of Japan for supporting and effectively coordinating with Việt Nam during the year of Việt Nam’s ASEAN Chairmanship, particularly in the framework of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+).

He invited the Japanese minister to attend the ADMM+ scheduled to be held online on December 9-11 and Nobuo accepted the invitation with pleasure. — VNS