CP of Vietnam, Contribution to the Athens Meeting 21J2002
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From: Communist Party of Vietnam, Sun, 16 Jun 2002
http://www.cpv.org.vn , mailto:perc@fpt.vn
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The World after September 11th and the Situation in Vietnam

Dear Comrade Aleka Paparigha, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of Greece,
Esteemed members of the Chair,
Comrades and friends,

It is a great pleasure for the CPV delegation to
participate in the Fifth International Meeting of the
world's communist, workers' and left parties organised by
the Communist Party of Greece in the beautiful capital city
of Athens. Allow us to warmly thank the CPG for its
invitation, heartfelt and considerate welcome. We would
like to convey our warmest greetings to the international
delegations here present and wish them good health,
happiness and success. We would also like to wish the
Meeting splendid success, contributing thereby to the
strengthening friendship and co-ordination among
revolutionary, democratic and progressive forces in the
struggle for peace, national independence, democracy and
social progress.

The theme of the present Meeting is so important not only
because it is a topical issue, but also directly related to
peace, stability in the world and independence, sovereignty
and security of nations. The clarification of the current
world situation will help us to defy the fundamental
contradictions, the trends rallying and the nature of our
time, immediate and future orientations and tasks in order
to promote the common struggle of the international
communist and workers' movement for the noble goals of our
time. Naturally, in a single meeting, we cannot discuss and
find solutions for all the problems facing us today.
Nevertheless, from today's discussion, there could emerge
initiatives and measures towards co-ordinated actions
helping channel the developments towards a positive trend.

The September 11th event has a far-reaching and long0term
impact on the economy, the political and security situation
in the United States itself, as well as in other countries,
various regions and the world at large. The world's
situation after September the 11th has witnessed numerous
changes.

Economically, the September the 11th event, directly
affecting the service sector (finance, insurance, tourism,
aviation... ) has swept into recession the US economy
already in stagnation since mid-2000 with the slowdown of
the high-tech industry, which had known 10 years of
vigorous development. Accounting for nearly 30% of the
world's GDP, the slowdown of the US economy has dealt
severe blow to the world's economy. This, together with the
years-long serious crisis of the Japanese economy and the
slowing down of the EU countries' economies, has plunged
into recession the world's economy. There have been
upheavals in the financial-currency, raw material and fuel
markets, as well as in a number of sectors and areas of the
world's economy and trade. Most heavily affected have been
aviation, tourism and investment. And as it is the case
with any major upheaval in the world, most disadvantaged
have been the less developed and developing countries. That
the financial-currency crisis in Argentina has turned into
a political one raises a warning to the developing
countries. Although the US economy has shown signs of
recovery, sometimes even faster then expected, this is
still unsteady and fraught with potential uncertainties.

From the political and security perspectives, the situation
has developed very complicatedly and anxiously. Terrorism
and the counter-terror fight have emerged as the No1 issue
in the world. What happened in America ha attracted special
attention because it is related to the internal security
and stability of other nations. For the very first time in
its history, the US has been subjected to an attack right
from the front and at its centre. Also, for the first time
since its war of aggression against Vietnam, the US has
launched an all-round and projected war against an
undefined enemy, whose objectives are completely different:
not to compete with the US for regional and world
influence, but to wear out American power. The danger of
terror attacks with modern weaponry still threatening many
countries as well as of the war spilling over the territory
of Afghanistan has heated up the world's situation and
laden it with many uncertainties.

Right after September the 11th, the US Administration
declared a state of war and committed itself to a
counter-terrorist war. It has accused Osama bin Laden's Al
Qaeda as the culprit and made urgent exterminating Al Qaeda
and overthrowing the Taliban Administration, accused of
fostering and supporting Osama bin Laden. On October the
10th, the US started attacks on Afghanistan. The US
Administration has even declared those who are not for the
US counter-terrorist war as siding with terrorism. The
developments have posed many questions that need clear
answers. By launching a new war, whether the US only aims
at attacking terrorism or has it other calculations? Aren't
the record peace0time defence budget, the withdrawal from
the 1972 ABM Treaty despite the opposition of Russia and
many other countries, the acceleration of NMD and TMD and
the large-scale war in Afghanistan aimed at increasing the
US military strength ? Isn't the increase of the defence
budget, war spreading and weaponry production targeted at
triggering investment demand in order to pull up the US
economy in recession? Aren't the sending of troops to and
the establishment of military bases in Afghanistan and
certain countries in South Asia, Central Asia and South
Caucasus in the name of counter-terrorism to facilitate the
US first-ever standing foothold in a place of strategic
geo-political importance between the Asian and European
continents with a large oil reserve; to help the US come
colossi to a number of related major powers, compete with
them and narrow down their strategic space; and eventually
dominate the entire region? The US intentional inclusion of
certain countries into an �axis of evil�; declared
readiness for nuclear first strike at a number or
countries, including big powers; threat to attack this or
that country for unscrupulous reasons ... do all these fall
within the framework of an anti0terrorist fight? Or rather
is it a favourable opportunity for the US to establish its
global strategy, to check the rise of other countries and
establish its unchallenged position as the unique
superpower in the world? What would become the world
situation in the next years? What would be the world order:
uni-polar or multi-polar? Could mankind preserve and
consolidate peace, stability and development co-operation?
Such major questions are not easily answerable, and in
searching for appropriate conclusions we should further
follow and study developments of the world's situation,
factors affecting the world's political and security
aspects as well as the policies of different countries.
However, what could already be said right now is that the
above-mentioned toughness, arrogance and unilateralism
disregarding the UN Charter and international law do
violate independence and sovereignty of states, threaten
peace and security of nations and exarcebate the world's
situation.

Vietnam's position regarding terrorism is quite clear. It
opposes to and condemn terrorism in all its forms, at the
same time it supports the struggle against terrorism with
measures conformable with the UN Charter and international
law. We stand against all abuses of anti-terrorism for acts
of war against independence and sovereign states. We
support the settlement of international conflicts and
disputes by means of peaceful purely by military strength
and forces. Terrorism should be fought purely by military
strength and forces. Terrorism should be fought against
also by political measures; we should in particular
eradicate the root causes of terrorism, which are war of
aggression interference, foreign domination, oppression,
exploitation, inequality, power politics, imposition, the
negative aspects of liberal capitalist globalisation. Karl
Marx once said �A nation that dominates another nation is
itself not free�.

It is and objective of our struggle to eradicate
oppression, exploitation, inequality, powerpolitics,
outside imposition and interference for a new, free and
equal society for all. We advocate a democratic, equal and
equitable world economic and political order, in which all
nations, be they big or small, have equal rights to
participate in affairs of the international society. We
express our concerns over the developments of the situation
in the Middle East with the escalation of violence,
threatening regional and world's peace and stability. We
reaffirm our position of supporting the struggle for
national self-determination rights of the Palestinian
people and do hope that related sides promote the
negotiations for the peaceful settlement of the Middle East
problem on the basis of the UN Resolutions, and in
conforming with the UN Charter and international law. We
are of the view that continuous efforts should be made to
promote the role of the United Nations, to renew and
democratise this organisation; to strengthen the linkage
and co-operation among countries for socio-economic
development and the people's life improvement; to
consolidate friendship, co-operation among nations against
the danger of war, armed conflicts and international
terrorism. In this struggle of the humankind, the communist
and workers' parties play an important role for they
represent the aspiration and interest of people and
nations, and their solidarity and co-ordination are what
unites other forces of democracy and progress.

The world in the first years of the third millennium is
traversing a very complicated stage. The
scientific-technological revolution, especially in IT and
biotechnology has given mankind new capacities capable of
satisfying man's needs. It accelerates the globalisation
process and given rise to a global oneness, bringing
nations closer to each other geographically. But like
globalisation itself, it also poses tremendous challenges
to revolutionary forces and the world over. We all faced
with a major question namely: where is mankind heading for?
The answer is not at all simple.

Following the collapse of the world's socialist system, the
most often-used argument has been that communism is over,
because it is an accident of history, and capitalism has
prevailed all over the world. This is not reality. Reality
is that communism is at the same time an aspiration and
dream, an ideal and a real movement developing within the
struggle of the working class and toiling people to change
the capitalist society, eradicate slavement, oppression and
exploitation and build a new society, new and fine
relations between man and man. The noble ideals of
communism remain the target of billions of people on our
planet. Reality is that there remain countries where the
population under the leadership of its working class party
are building a new society along the road towards socialism
and communism.

After 16 years of implementing the renewal policy initiated
by the VI CPV National Congress (1986), our people have
recorded important achievements enabling the country to
enter a new stage of development, that of accelerated
industrialisation and modernisation. Through the practice
of renewal, against the complicated world and regional
background as we all know, our party and people have
understood profoundly the lessons that national
independence should be closely associated with socialism.
President Ho Chi Minh, the great leader of the Communist
party and people of Vietnam once said: �There should be
independence and freedom. But independence and freedom
would become meaningless without the people's well-being
and happiness�. For us, the people's well-being and
happiness are to be brought about by socialism. It is
therefore our objective to strive for �a wealthy nation, a
strong country, a just, democratic and advanced society�.

The CPV IX National Congress in April 2001 reaffirmed the
socialist-oriented renewal policy. Together with the
comprehensive renewal inside the country, we continue
implementing the foreign policy of independence,
self-reliance, openness, diversification and
multilateralisation of international relations under the
slogan that Vietnam is ready to be a friend and reliable
partner of countries in the world community, striing for
peace, national independence, co-operation and development.

Despite untold difficulties, in a world situation full of
complicated developments, we are firmly convinced that by
deploying our synergy as the main asset and with the
sympathy, support and assistance of comrades and friends
all over the world, the Vietnamese people will certainly
overcome all challenges, fulfil the cause of renewal,
advance firmly along the path of socialism that has been
chosen. Taking this opportunity, we would like to convey
our sincere thanks to the Communist party and working
people of Greece, to our comrades and friends in all
continents for their heartfelt and valuable support and
assistance given to the Communist Party and the people of
Vietnamese in their past struggle for national liberation
as well as the present endeavour of building and defending
the socialist homeland.

With fraternal feelings and solidarity, allow me once again
to convey to all comrades and friends here present our best
wishes. We do hope that our Meeting will have a successful
outcome, thus contributing to the promotion of our common
struggle for the noble ideas of our time: peace, national
independence and socialism.

Thank you very much, comrades and friends, for your kind
attention.