Hanoi, Jan. 30 -- General Nguyen Tan Cuong, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army and Deputy Minister of National Defence, received Australian Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond in Hanoi on January 30 morning. At the meeting, Cuong affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to its relations with Australia. The official upgrade of bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 marked an important milestone, creating favourable conditions to further promote cooperation across various fields, including defence cooperation. He stressed that in recent years, based on the 2010 memorandum of understanding and the 2018 joint vision statement, the Vietnam-Australia defence cooperation has been ac...