28 February 2017

News Story: Vietnam seeks closer defense trade ties with Israel

By: Barbara Opall-Rome

TEL AVIV – In a rare public acknowledgement of growing defense trade with Israel, Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang said Israel “has become a big partner of Vietnam” and should work to deepen bilateral ties in research, development and technology transfer. 

Quang’s remarks came at a reception held in Hanoi for Yitzhak Aharonovitch, chairman of Israel’s state-owned IMI Systems, where the Vietnamese leader cited “consistently growing” cooperation, “especially in the areas of security and defense.” 

According to an IMI statement released Monday, Aharonovitch, a former minister for public security, said the Israeli company he now chairs has been investing in Vietnam since 1999 and hoped that “mutual collaboration and high technology knowledge transfer” with Vietnam would continue to grow. 

“Aharonovitch stressed that the advanced weapon systems developed and manufactured by IMI Systems correspond to the advanced technology used by the Vietnamese Army,” the statement read. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews