The Vietnamese defense minister said on...
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov arrived on Monday in Hanoi to meet with the Vietnamese leadership and discuss the prospects of military cooperation between the two countries.
"I am certain that these meetings will give a new boost to our bilateral ties in the defense sphere," Gen. Phung Quang Thanh said during talks with Serdyukov.
In response, the Russian minister said that Russia considered Vietnam its strategic partner and welcomed the steady development of friendly relations with the south-east Asian state.
Russia and Vietnam have cooperated in the military sphere since 1953. In 1998, Moscow and Hanoi signed an intergovernmental agreement on military cooperation, and a relevant Russian-Vietnamese intergovernmental commission was established in 1999.
In October 2008, during the Vietnamese president"s visit to Moscow, Russia and Vietnam set up a strategy of military and technical cooperation until 2020 by signing an inter-governmental memorandum.