Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, met with Nguyen Duc Soat, deputy chief of general staff of the Vietnamese People's Army and his party yesterday in Beijing, who had come to China to attend the first Sino-Vietnamese defensive security consultation.

　　Xu said that there existed traditional friendship between China and Vietnam, and furthering the bilateral cooperation between the two countries were in the fundamental interests of the two peoples. In recent years, following the guidelines of "long-term stability, future orientation, good-neighborly friendship and all-round cooperation", the Sino-Vietnamese relations had been developing very well with ever deepening political mutual trust, fruitful trade and economic cooperation and gradual deepening of military exchanges. The PLA was willing to continuously strengthen the friendly and cooperative ties with the Vietnamese People's Army and promote all-round development of friendly ties between the two countries.

　　Nguyen Duc Soat highly praised the relations between the two countries and the two armed forces, and he also expressed his hope to continuously strengthen exchanges and deepen the friendly cooperation between the two militaries in various fields.

　　By Luo Zheng

　　(Apr.12, PLA Daily)