(VNA) – Defence cooperation will make a positive contribution to Vietnam-US relations for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

The statement was made at the 3^rd Vietnam – US Defence Policy Dialogue held last Friday in Hanoi. Vietnam’s Deputy Defence Minister, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, led the Vietnamese delegation. The US delegation was headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia Vikram J Singh. The participants discussed issues related to their defence cooperation and other security issues in Asia and the Pacific. They agreed that in the recent past, they have made progress in several areas, especially in humanitarian activities like locating soldiers missing in action, clearing bombs and mines and other explosives left by the war, and cleaning up Agent Orange/dioxin contamination. They reached consensus on the need to increase cooperation in new areas such as human resource training, UN peacekeeping activities, army medical services, natural disaster relief, and search and rescue.