Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Tom Kelly hosted a delegation of Vietnamese government officials led by Vice Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc for security talks in Washington D.C. The Oct. 1 meeting, the sixth US-Vietnam political security and defense dialogue, was the first such get-together since President Barack Obama and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang announced a new comprehensive partnership between the two countries in July. In a joint statement released after the meeting, the two parties noted the progress they have made in negotiating a civil nuclear agreement. They pledged to advance nonproliferation issues and strengthen cooperation in cyber defense, disaster response, and search and rescue. The two countries also promised to continue cooperation in resolving legacies of the Vietnam War, such as POW/MIA accounting, dioxin and Agent Orange contamination, and unexploded ordnance. The seventh US-Vietnam PSDD will take place next year in Hanoi.
A Defense Department team is on the ground in Ukraine assessing what the country needs to protect itself from air, naval, electronic, and cyber warfare threats as Russian troops gather on multiple fronts, a senior Ukrainian defense official told Air Force Magazine, describing an emphasis on what assistance can be…