Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh delivers a speech at the meeting (Photo:VNA)

At a Wednesday meeting of deputy defense ministers in Seoul, Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said the meeting mechanism will benefit all sides. He asked South Korea to pay greater attention to major areas of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) mechanism, such as maintaining peace and maritime security. 

South Korean Deputy Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk said ASEAN is a top priority in the New Southern Policy, adding that South Korea is looking for cooperation on the basis of respecting consensus and ASEAN’s central role. He suggested expanding high-level collaboration on the basis of common interest and jointly coping with traditional and non-traditional security challenges. Mr. Suh expressed wishes to establish mechanisms to foster coordination with each ASEAN member state, such as holding annual high-level meetings and meetings of leaders in logistics, armed services, defense industry, intelligence services, and holding defense cooperation agreements. He hoped for deeper collaboration with ASEAN within the framework of working groups of the ADMM+ mechanism in the fields of maritime security, anti-terrorism, cyber security, and military medicine.