East Sea issue must be solved at the strategic level: Defence Minister

PANO – General Phung Quang Thanh, Vietnamese Minister of National Defence, talked with reporters at the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting on June 8th about Vietnam’s contribution at the 9th Shangri-la Dialogue and the EastSea issue. Reporter: Could you please tell us about your feelings about the regional security after attending the 9th Shangri-la Dialogue? General Phung Quang Thanh: State presidents, prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, ministers of defence, scholars etc. from 28 countries attended the 9th Shangri-la Dialogue. Participants at the dialogue discussed many topics, including the situations in Asia Pacific. Basically, the region still maintains peace but there are factors that can cause potential risks, including both traditional and non-traditional security challenges. The non-traditional security challenges comprise of marine security, piracy, natural calamity and other issues. Therefore, there needs to be discussions and cooperation. Asia Pacific is the fastest developing region in terms of economy and is the region where many countries have interests. Cooperation within ASEAN cannot solve all the problems. The regional security relates to the interests of many countries and powers. Therefore, protecting the marine security and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment on the EastSea and in Asia Pacific are important issues. We recommend that 10 ASEAN member states need to broaden military and defence cooperation with eight ASEAN dialogues countries of China, the U.S, Russia, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Ministers of Defence can then sit together to discuss reaching a common understanding about security in the Asia…