Vietnam, a key security partner of the United States in Asia, is participating in a historic joint army exercise with China as Vietnamese officials say the cooperation between the Chinese military and the Vietnamese military has “deepened.”
In a Sunday statement, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced, “The ground forces of China and Vietnam will conduct a joint training exercise in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in mid-to-late July.”
China’s Ministry of National Defense noted that the training exercise, which is expected to concentrate on “joint border patrol,” is the first joint army training exercise to include both Vietnam and China.
“The exercise aims to enhance mutual learning and exchange of border patrol experiences and further deepen practical cooperation between the two militaries,” China’s Ministry of National Defense added.
According to Newsweek, the joint army training exercise is the third time Chinese and Vietnamese military forces have held joint engagements since the two countries held two joint patrols in the Beibu Gulf in April.
Newsweek reported that Chinese Defense Minister Admiral Dong Jun previously claimed that the Chinese and Vietnamese militaries should be “aligned with the relationship orientation of ‘comrades and brothers,’ further enhance strategic communication, deepen exchanges at all levels and in all fields, improve the quality and effectiveness of border defense friendly exchanges, continuously expand pragmatic cooperation, and make greater contributions to accelerating the construction of a strategically significant China-Vietnam community with a shared future.”
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Meanwhile, Vietnamese Defense Minister General Phan Van Giang previously emphasized that cooperation between the Chinese and Vietnamese militaries is an “important part of the bilateral relationship” between the two countries. The Vietnamese defense minister also noted that the cooperation between the military “has been continuously deepened and achieved remarkable results.”
“Vietnam is willing to join hands with China to build a more pragmatic pillar of security cooperation and bring more benefits to the two countries and their people,” the Vietnamese defense minister added.
Vietnam’s “deepened” relationship with the Chinese military comes after the U.S. State Department released a statement earlier this year regarding the security partnership between the United States and Vietnam.
In January, the State Department said, “The U.S. security relationship with Vietnam continues to expand and the two countries share a common vision for the future of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Our security cooperation is based on our mutual commitment to deepen defense cooperation and shared resolve to address regional security challenges.”
