The United States and Vietnam recently formally established a military medical partnership between the military units of the two countries, via a signing ceremony conducted on August 1st.

Representing the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs is Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson Jr., while the Military Medical Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense was represented by its director general, Senior Colonel Vu Quoc Binh.

The representatives of the two countries signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) on Military Medical Cooperation, witnessed by U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Claire Pierangelo and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defense Lt. Gen. Le Huu Duc. The signed SOI solidifies further the cooperation between U.S. and Vietnamese military units, as well as serves as the foundation for more military medical and interagency medical engagements.

These engagements may include subject matter exchanges, medical research collaboration, Medical Civil Action Projects (MEDCAPS), clinical exchanges, workshops, and conferences.

Claire Pierangelo shared: “This is an important day between our two nations… This growing military medical partnership will benefit the U.S. and Vietnam and also contribute to increasing our health cooperation in the region.”

Vice Adm. Robinson, on the other hand, shared: “This historic bilateral agreement is not about personalities or politics… Medicine and medical research are universal languages that all countries and cultures understand. Diseases affect us all in the same way. By working together in areas such as infectious disease research, we not only help each other, we help the world meet these global health challenges.”