Defense scholars from the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday called for more cooperation in the field of defense between the southeast Asian bloc and China.
"Bilateral defense cooperation will strengthen our relationship, give us a better understanding about how China sees ASEAN. We do hope in the future, the relations will become stronger," said Brigadier General Marciano Norman, director for Environment and Analysis Department of Indonesia's Defense Ministry, at a dialog here between senior defense scholars from China and ASEAN nations.
The three-day forum gathered more than 20 senior scholars and experts from China and ten ASEAN member nations on Wednesday in the Chinese capital city to discuss the issue of "military modernization and regional confidence building."
"This is the first meeting among ASEAN senior scholars and is a constructive initiative done by China to enhance trust," Norman said.
He also saw no intention from China to use military forces. "At the meeting, I can see China has no intention of threatening the region in a military way, we're promoting better relations here, which will benefit all of us."
Vanna Ros, deputy chief of ASEAN affairs office of Cambodia's Defense Department, hailed the military cooperation between China and his country. "The military cooperation between China and my country is for peace and confidence building," he said.
China has been providing training for Cambodian soldiers and such training has greatly improved the soldiers' combat skills and techniques, he added.
He hoped that ASEAN and China would conduct more cooperation in the efforts to fight non-traditional security threats, such as terrorism and drug smuggling.
Carlos L. Agustin, president of National Defense College of the Philippines, said China and ASEAN have been getting along well and a strong and solid relation between the two sides is expected.
"The saying that there will be a war (in the region) is obsolete," the retired Brigadier General told Xinhua, adding that peace, development and cooperation are the theme of the time.
Hamzah Sulaiman, director of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies of Brunei, said he is happy to see that China started sponsoring such forums to forge friendship between different militaries and hoped to cooperate with China in the fields of communications, computing technology, and intelligence exchange.
ASEAN, established in 1967, now groups 10 member countries, namely Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Since China established dialog with ASEAN 17 years ago, both sides have forged a strategic partnership and conducted extensive and frequent exchanges and cooperation in various fields. The mutual political trust has been enhanced and notable results have been achieved during bilateral cooperation.
Source: Xinhua
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