Vietnam Reaches Aviation Security Pacts With US, Canada
Vietnam Wednesday attained bilateral agreements with the United States and Canada on improving aviation security as part of the counter-terrorism cooperation between the APEC economies, an official said. 
Nguyen Quoc Cuong, head of the Multilateral Cooperation Division under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the agreements were reached on the sidelines of the third APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM III) Wednesday.
Cuong said Canada pledged to help Vietnam implement a project to strengthen coordination between ministries and sectors on aviation security in the Asian country.
Meanwhile, the US committed to support Vietnamese customs with equipment worth US$600,000 to conduct a project to promote customs clearance via aviation routes, said Cuong.
Under the agreement, commodities checked at Vietnamese airports will be eligible to enter without further inspection at US airports.
These agreements would be announced to the other member economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at the upcoming SOM official session, Cuong said.
Counter-terrorism cooperation
Cuong said at the SOM III Wednesday representatives of the 21 APEC member economies were unanimous in three among the 10 initiatives to fight against terrorism that threatens the bloc’s trade security.
They are the US initiative to ensure food safety, the Australian initiative to counter financial support for terrorists, and the Philippine initiative to publish books on terrorism.
APEC, formed in 1989, consist of 21 economies: the United States, Russia, China, Canada and Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Philippines, Chile, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and the Republic of Korea.
A total of 1,300 delegates from the APEC economies have attended the SOM III, which kicked off in central Danang City on September 4.
Source: Thanh Nien News
