HA NOI — The 7th Informal Meeting of ASEAN Defence Force chiefs will open in Ha Noi later this month.

The four-day meeting, or ACDFIM-7, from Wednesday, March 24, would focus on increasing mutual understanding and co-operation to respond to inter-country security threats, Viet Nam People's Army's General Politics Department deputy head Lieutenant General Nguyen Tuan Dung told a media briefing yesterday.

Viet Nam was well set to host the meeting and was finishing two important drafts of the Resolution and the Action Plan for the 2010-11, he said.

The Defence Ministry's Institute of International Relations director Colonel Vu Tien Trong said the ASEAN defence chiefs had identified six security challeges facing the region: sea security, terrorism, natural calamities, contagious epidemics, food security, and climate change.

ACDFIM-7 is one of the most important of 13 events scheduled for this year with Viet Nam as Association of Southeast Asian Nations Chairman.

Viet Nam will also chair the 4th ASEAN Defence – Military Meeting (ADMM) in Ha Noi in May.

Participants will discuss issues of mutual regional interests and measures to promote friendship, unity and mutual understanding among member countries to make Southeast Asia, a region of peace, stability and prosperity.

The first ACDFIM was held in Indonesia in 2001 and later made a yearly event hosted by each ASEAN member.

Viet Nam joined ADCFIM in Brunei in 2002. — VNS