The Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Nov. 19 signed a memorandum of understanding on the US-Vietnam Technical Cooperation on capacity building to locate and identify Vietnamese persons missing during the war.

Illustration photo. Photo: Internet

Under the MoU, both sides set out to collaborate on a training and technical assistance programme which aims to strengthen the scientific and technical capacity of Vietnamese government institutions and improve the ability of Vietnamese authorities to locate, identify, and document those Vietnamese soldiers missing in the war.

The activities will take the form of technical assistance and include training, exchange of information and experience, provision of equipment and transfer of technology.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony in Hanoi, MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa indicated that cooperation in this area reflects the good will of the two countries, and the US and Vietnam will continue to further promote efforts to collaborate in the areas of social and humanitarian assistance that aim to develop the bilateral relationship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries in the future.

Although the war ended 35 years ago, Vietnam still lacks information on hundreds of thousands of revolutionary martyrs’ whereabouts and has not yet been able to identify hundreds of thousands of sets of remains of martyrs, said the deputy minister.

Like the effectiveness of the cooperation programme to seek the US missing in action (MIA) soldiers in the war that have brought joys to US servicemen’s families, he said he hoped the technical cooperation programme will make practical contributions to locating and identifying Vietnamese persons missing during the war, thus meeting the desire of the martyrs’ families.

This new activity comes at an opportune time as Vietnam and the US celebrate the 15 th anniversary of normalising our diplomatic relationship, said US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak. “We are encouraged to see the increased mutual understanding and confidence between our two nations,” he said.

After 10 years of operation in Vietnam , USAID has contributed more than 330 million USD in support of Vietnam ’s development and relief activities.

Source: VNA