Lord Astor of Hever, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Defence welcomed the Vice Chief of Defence for The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh and his delegation to a lunch held at Lancaster House to mark the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two nations.
The signing of this Memorandum follows on from the Strategic Partnership Declaration signed on 8th September 2010 by the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Pham Gia Khiem and the UK Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon William Hague MP.
The agreement with Vietnam demonstrates the UK's commitment to pursuing an active foreign policy with emerging powers around the world. The UK aims to make the Strategic Partnership a springboard to take our growing bilateral trade relationship to the next level. The Strategic Partnership Declaration demonstrates the breadth and the depth of our cooperation, including defence & security. The UK is looking to engage more closely with countries in South East Asia and the Defence Cooperation MOU signed today between Lord Astor of Hever, and Vice Minister of National Defence Vinh, is another example of this regional engagement.
It is expected that last week’s MOU signature will further enhance the bilateral relationship, and will support the exchange of information in areas such as training & peace support operations.
Lord Astor of Hever said: "I welcome the opportunity to meet with Lt Gen Nguyen Chi Vinh and to sign the Defence Co-Operation MOU. We had fruitful discussions on a number of topics and hope that the MOU will help to facilitate a deeper level of cooperation between our two nations, enhancing the bilateral relationship, envisaged in the Strategic Partnership Declaration signed in London last year”.