Athens Meeting 19-20 June 2003, Contribution by CP of
Vietnam
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From: SolidNet
http://www.cpv.org.vn, mailto:perc@fpt.vn
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Comrade Aleka Papariga, Secretary General of the Communist
Party of Greece,

Dear comrades and friends,

First of all, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks
to the Communist Party of Greece for its initiative to
organize this International Meeting which enables us to
continue to meet and exchange views, thus enhancing mutual
understanding, cooperation and solidarity between Parties.
Let me extend to comrade Secretary General Aleka Papariga
and other comrades from the Communist Party of Greece our
thanks for your warm and thoughful welcome as well as the
wonderful working conditions reserved for international
delegations. May I, on behalf of the CPV delegation, convey
to comrades and friends here present the greetings of
solidarity and friendship of the Vietnamese Communists and
people.

Dear comrades and friends,

The topic of this International Meeting touches upon
burning issues of the world today: "The movements against
the war and the capitalist globalization, and the
communists". These are issues with direct impacts and
effects on peace, stability, security and development of
all nations and humankind. Starting from the leading role
of a party in the struggle of the working people in each
country and coordination between Parties in the
international struggle for peace, national independence,
democracy and social progress, it is our opinion that an
exchange of views on these issues between our Parties is an
absolute essential.

Entering the 21st century, the international situation has
witnessed many rapid and extremely complicated changes.
Taking advantage of the war on terrorism, aggressive forces
in the United States are hectically implementing a new
global strategy - "preemption". They have empowered
themselves the right to classify countries in the world and
unilaterally launch attacks, even with nuclear weapons,
against nations which they consider a threat to U.S.
security in order to establish U.S. domination in the
world. By waging the local war with great intensity,
overthrowing President Saddam Hussein's regime and
occupying Iraq, the U.S. Administration has moved an
important step further in its grand strategic calculations
in the Middle East: to deter "rogue states"; promote
Western-style "democratization" in the region; support and
ensure security for Israel; change the Mid-East situation
in favor of the United States; establish an absolute
control of oil reserves in the Middle East in order to
dominate the world's oil market...etc. The implementation
of new strategy and the war in Iraq will lead to severe
consequences in the world's politics and economy:
international relations will become more tense; national
independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of all
nations will suffer an encroachment; peace and security in
the world will be under serious threat; the international
economy will face greater problems, and the United Nations'
role will be more seriously defied.

Being aware of those severe consequences, a wave of
struggle of the world's people against the policy of power
politics, unilateralism and aggression, against the war,
for peace has exploded and widespread throughout the world,
becoming the largest scale movement since the Movement of
Solidarity and Support for Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s
of the 20th century. This movement attracted the
participation of not only peace-fighters, but also
congressmen, political leaders, social activists, actors
and writers, political parties, peace movements,
socio-political and non-governmental organizations of
different countries. Along with this wave of struggle, a
great number of meetings against the war in Iraq held by
mass organizations and large groups of students took place
in many universities, provinces and cities throughout
Vietnam. The occurrence of a series of demonstrations at
the same time in many different places worldwide is a vivid
expression of an awakening of the independent and
self-reliance spirit, the love for peace and justice of all
nations, and the coordination of actions between forces
against war, for peace, including the communist, workers'
and left parties.

Together with the struggle movement of the world's people
for peace, many international and regional organizations
such as the 13th Non-Aligned Movement Summit, Arab
Ministerial Meeting, General Assembly of the Confederation
of ASEAN Journalists...etc, also raised their voice against
the war and requested that the Iraqi issue should be
settled through political solutions in compliance with the
United Nations Charter and international law.

The aforementioned manifestations show that though having
deep changes in the international relations, peace and war
have remained an important topic of our time, at the same
time become one of the deep contemporary subjects, making
contributions to forming new forces against the policy of
power politics and an increased tendency of the use of
force and threat to use force in the imperialist
international relations, for the world's peace and
security, and for independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity of all nations. It is certain, however, that
there remain a lot of things to do ahead of us so as to
nurture, develop and enhance our struggle, and consolidate
our movement in terms of politics, organization,
orientation and mode of action in order to prevent the
imperialist aggression. This can be a subject of our
discussions at this International Meeting, as well as at
other international fora.

Comrades and friends,

Imperialism is making full use of complicated developments
in the international situation and its advantages in
science and technology, capital, managerial experience and
market to dominate globalization and expand the capitalist
economic relations throughout the world in order to
establish a capitalist "new world order". Therefore,
globalization, with its positive and negative aspects, has
been deepening contradictions between imperialist
conspiracy and power of domination and national sovereignty
of all countries; among capitalist states and corporations
themselves; between an increase in wealth and intensified
oppression and exploitation, as well as unfair distribution
which leads to an expanded rich and poor gap between
capitalist developed countries, the world's economic
centers and developing or underdeveloped countries; and
within each nation.

To this end, it is our view that participation in
globalization has become a long and complicated process of
both cooperation and struggle. The question put forward
developing countries like Vietnam will be as follows: if we
have appropriate policies and steps, and are proactive to
participate in globalization and regionalization, we will
be able to make use of its positive aspects and restrict
its negative features, and at the same time record better
gains for our national interests. If we played a passive
role in this process, we would make a mistake and not be
immune to severe consequences. Not only should the economy
be undeveloped, but also national independence would be
challenged. The danger of further dependence on developed
countries would also increase. However, whether this danger
will come into reality or not depends on many concrete
elements, especially the ability of each country to develop
and bring into play its internal strength, firmly maintain
its principles, at the same time set forth appropriate
plans and steps in its participation in the economic
globalization.

Thus, the fight against "the capitalist globalization" has
become an important content of national and class struggle
in the present world. In our opinion, all countries and
nations, on the one hand, cannot help participating in the
economic globalization as an objective economic process
which closely links with the development of productive
forces of human society. On the other hand, they cannot
help struggling against capitalist influence and imposition
on this process. All countries and nations cannot stand
aside the struggle against the capitalist "new world
order", for an equitable, democratic and just world based
upon the fundamental principles of international relations:
to strictly respect independence, sovereignty, territorial
integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of
nations, the rights of self -determination and development
paths of each country's own choice.

This struggle has increasingly become stronger. Its
developments and prospects will depend on many factors,
especially the ability to form a common voice and concerted
action of nations and peace-loving, revolutionary and
progressive forces in the world. We strongly believe that
the solidarity, cooperation and coordination of action
between our Parties in this struggle will be an extremely
important factor.

Being aware of the on-going deep and major changes in
Vietnam and the world at large, the Communist Party of
Vietnam has mapped out the all-round renewal policy,
including the foreign policy of independence, autonomy,
openness, multilateralization and diversification which
aims at taking advantage of the international favorable
conditions created by the revolution of science and
technology and globalization, at the same time restricting
and overcoming negative aspects of globalization, fighting
to defeat the imperialist policy of power politics,
imposition and intervention, for the interests of
socio-economic development, life betterment for the people,
acceleration of industrialization and modernization, and
for the implementation of the two strategic tasks -
building socialism and safeguarding the Fatherland, thus
making an active contribution to the common struggle of the
world's people for peace, national independence, democracy
and social progress.

With that in mind, we wish that our Parties will futher
consolidate and strengthen the solidarity and coopeartion,
enhance exchanges of information and views at bilateral and
multilateral level, coordinate with each other in the
regional and international arena, together striving for a
world of peace, stability, democracy, justice and
development, and for national independence and social
progress for the sake of the working class and different
strata of the laboring population.

Thank you for your attention.

SOME FEATURES OF THE CURRENT SITUATION IN VIETNAM

The IXth National Congress of the Communist Party of
Vietnam has decided to accelerate the course of renewal,
industrialization and modernization which aims at making
Vietnam basically a modern-oriented industrialized country
by 2020. In the implementation of the renewal process, we
consider economic development the central task and Party
building the key task.

I. Socio-Economic Situation:

Despite many difficulties caused by the world's complicated
political and economic developments, and by successive
natural disasters, Vietnam has still recorded many
important achievements: the economy continues to develop.
Last year, Vietnam's GDP grew by more than 7%, thus giving
fresh impetus to job creation, life betterment for the
people, continued expansion of international relations, and
improvement of Vietnam's international status. This
positive posture has been maintained during the first
months of this year 2003.

In order to ensure continued fast and sustainable economic
growth, we reserve high priorities for structural shift and
improvement of economic efficiency and competitiveness;
better settlement of social problems; reduction of
disparities among population strata and geographic areas;
acceleration of administrative reforms, and combat against
corruption and bureaucratism.

We have been persevered in the foreign policy of
independence, autonomy, openness, multilateralization and
diversification of our external relations. Our foreign
activity aims at firmly maintaining peace and a favorable
international environment for economic development,
national building and safeguarding, proactive integration
into the international and regional economy, promotion of
peace, stability, cooperation for development in Southeast
Asia and the world as a whole.

Having persisted in our policy of multilateralization and
diversification of international relations, we, at the same
time, give high preference to the consolidation of
cooperation with neighboring countries, the countries in
ASEAN, Asia-Pacific, the European Union as well as other
countries and international and regional organizations.

II. About The Communist Party of Vietnam:

In 2003, we have been implementing Resolution of the IXth
Party Congress: the Party plenums (from 2nd to 8th) after
the National Congress concretized and developed the
guidelines mapped out by the IXth Congress. We have also
been carrying out Party building and rectification campaign
in order to improve the leading competence and combativity
of our Party; enhance relations between the Party and
people; ensure successful leadership in the renewal
process; and practice democracy at grassroots level...etc.

Our Party has always attached importance to strengthening
national unity, considering it a decisive factor for
national development, and for the goal of "a prosperous
people, a strong country, and an equitable, democratic and
civilized society".