Friendly relations between Vietnamese, Chinese militaries to witness new developments: official

The friendly relations between Vietnamese and Chinese militaries will enjoy new developments and become one of the important pillars of the relations between the two parties and states, a senior Vietnamese military official said here on Tuesday.

Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnamese deputy minister of defense made the remark at a reception marking the 88th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi.

"Vietnam and China are two friendly neighbors, and it never changes. For generations, the people of the two countries have established and maintained relations, enjoyed co-existence, and formed a lot of commonalities in culture and traditional customs," Vinh said, adding that China is Vietnam's comprehensive strategic cooperative partner, and is always the priority in foreign relations policy of the party and the state of Vietnam.

The high-ranking leaders of the two armed forces will continue to maintain and foster the relations between the two armies, guiding the defense cooperation into depth and width with practical outcomes, Vinh said.

Addressing the reception, Zhen Zhongxing, military attache of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, said the military relation is an important part of the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. In recent years, the two armies have been making great progress in the high level exchanges, strategic dialogues, border defense forces cooperation and personnel training.

"We believe that, under the leadership of our two parties, on the basis of mutual respect and benefit, as well as equality and win-win cooperation, the two countries will deepen exchanges and cooperation in the military field and make efforts for sustained, healthy, and stable development of bilateral relations," Zhen said.

Now, China is promoting the modernization of its national defense, and is striving to build armed forces that commensurate with China's national security and development interests, and provide strong protection for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is the Chinese government's solemn commitment that China will adhere to a defensive national defense policy, never contend for hegemony and never engage in military expansion, Zhen said. Endi