Brussels (VNA) – The Belgian Chamber ofRepresentatives on June 20 held a hearing on a draft resolution in support ofVietnamese Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin.

Present at the session, Vietnamese Ambassador NguyenVan Thao briefed the participants on policies, action programmes and plans forwar victims in Vietnam, as well as the close coordination between Vietnam andthe US in settling war consequences.

The handling of AO issues needs international support,he said, lauding the Belgian government and people for their cooperation withand assistance to Vietnam in war legacy settlement and national construction overthe past time, through many fruitful programmes and projects.

Pierre Gréga, President of the Belgium-VietnamFriendship Association, who visited the Southeast Asian nation last March, saidmany Vietnamese children in dioxin-contaminated areas were born with birthdefects.

Stressing the importance of the draft resolution, Grégaexpressed his hope that it will be passed to facilitate the analysis of dioxin impactson humans and the environment.

It is the problem of not only Vietnam but also theentire world, he stressed.

Jan Haemers, CEO of Haemers Technologies, said hiscompany has been working with the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence since2022 in dioxin remediation in some “hot spots” with the support of the Belgiangovernment.  

André Flahaut, one of the five Belgianparliamentarians who proposed the draft resolution, told the Vietnam NewsAgency (VNA)’s correspondents in Brussels that he hopes the bill will beadopted this year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the diplomaticties between Vietnam and Belgium.

Sharing Flahaut’s view, Chairwoman of the ForeignAffairs Committee under the Belgian Chamber of Representatives Els Van Hoof saidthe information work should be stepped up to call for international support,especially tech firms, in dioxin cleanup in Vietnam.

Once the draft resolution is approved, the Belgianparliament will be the first European legislature to support the issue, shestressed.

According to the Vietnam Association of Victims ofAgent Orange/dioxin (VAVA), the US army sprayed 80 million litres of toxicchemicals on the South of Vietnam between 1961 and 1971, with 61% being AOcontaining 366kg of dioxin, on over nearly 3.06 million hectares (equivalent tonearly one quarter of the south’s total area).

Preliminary statistics showed that 4.8 millionVietnamese people were exposed to AO/dioxin, and about 3 million people becamevictims. Tens of thousands of people have died and millions of others sufferedfrom cancer and other incurable diseases as a result. Many of their offspringsalso suffer from birth deformities./.