Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung: Vietnam wishing strengthen cooperation with Canada in security and law enforcement

At the meeting, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung expressed his delight at the Comprehensive Partnership between Vietnam and Canada, which has been continuously consolidated and developed over more than 50 years across various fields, including politics and diplomacy, economy and trade, education, science and technology, security and defense as well as people-to-people exchanges.

He noted that, over the past year, senior leaders of the two countries have maintained frequent exchanges on the sidelines of major international conferences and multilateral forums, such as the ASEAN Summits, the G20 and APEC.

In addition, cooperation in education and training and people-to-people exchanges have continued to be strongly promoted, while defense and security cooperation has remained a bright spot with many practical activities.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung emphasized that Vietnam highly appreciates Canada’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy, in which Canada underscores the central role of ASEAN and recognizes Vietnam as a gateway for trade to the region, affirming that this provides a favorable foundation for further promoting bilateral relations between the two countries.

Regarding cooperation in security and law enforcement, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung stated that, in recent times, the Ministry of Public Security has closely coordinated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency to actively exchange information in combating various types of crime, organize training and capacity-building programs, and ensure security and safety of top Canadian leaders during their visits to Vietnam and vice versa.

Affirming that there is still large potential for development of relations between Vietnam and Canada in general and between the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam and Canadian partner agencies, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung proposed that the two sides continue to maintain information exchange and mutual consultations on issues of shared concern, as well as consider establishing a Deputy Minister–level Dialogue mechanism on Security and Law Enforcement to be held alternately in each country.

The host also suggested promoting the negotiation and the signing of cooperation agreements in the fields of criminal justice and crime prevention, aiming to provide a legal framework for citizen protection, extradition, transfer of sentenced persons and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

He further proposed that the two sides strengthen coordination between security and police agencies of the two countries, particularly in cybersecurity, modernization of equipment, development of the security industry, peacekeeping training and capacity-building of law enforcement forces.

Thanking Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung for the meeting, Ambassador James Nickel pledged that, in his capacity, he would continue to serve as a bridge and further promote the Comprehensive Partnership between Vietnam and Canada in a deeper more substantive manner and for positive outcomes in all fields.