Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung receives UNODC representative

Deputy Minister of Public Security Lieutenant General Le Quoc Hung hosted a meeting with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Representative for Southeast Asia & the Pacific Masood Karimipour, on the afternoon of September 26th, in Hanoi.

The event also saw the presence of Officer-in-Charge of the UNODC Vietnam Office Nguyen Nguyet Minh.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung affirmed Vietnam's consistent policy of supporting and promoting multilateralism and international cooperation in addressing global issues, contributing to maintaining international peace and security.

The host highly appreciated the effort of the United Nations in general and UNODC in particular in supporting countries in preventing and combating crimes, especially drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung revealed that, over the past time, the two sides have effectively cooperated via the Regional Border Liaison Office (BLO) Network, jointly launched coordination programs on prison management as well as strengthened cooperation in training and building law enforcement capacity of police officers, especially in preventing and combating high-tech crime, environmental crime, child sexual abuse, money laundering and terrorist financing.

To strengthen cooperation between the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam (MPS) and UNODC, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung suggested that UNODC continue to provide MPS with equipment and facilities in support of its crime prevention and control work, as well as regularly invite Vietnamese police officers to international conferences and workshops so that they can learn more experience in preventing and combating transnational crime.

The Vietnamese Deputy Minister also proposed that the two sides should further enhance high-level delegation exchange to seek more cooperation opportunities, effectively deepen current cooperation mechanisms, especially the regional BLO network, as well as jointly develop a strategy to proactively prevent and respond to non-traditional security threats to domestic, regional and global peace and security.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung also suggested that the two sides continue to closely cooperate in training and building capacity of personnel in charge of preventing and combating money laundering, terrorist financing and violent extremism, while strengthening cooperation in preventing and combating drug-related crime, environmental crime, human trafficking and corruption cases related to foreigners.

Sincerely thanking Deputy Minister Le Quoc Hung for the meeting, UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia & the Pacific Masood Karimipour underlined that UNODC highly appreciated Vietnam’s effort in crime prevention and control, especially drug-related crime, corruption, environmental crime, human trafficking, money laundering and terrorism.

Sharing the same view with the MPS leader, the UNODC Regional Representative affirmed that UNODC will continue to closely coordinate with Vietnamese partners, provide the Vietnam’s side with sufficient equipment and facilities, support MPS in providing healthcare services for prison inmates as well as organizing training and capacity-building programs on crime prevention and control for the Vietnamese police forces.