Lifting defence foreign relations level, meeting requirements of construction and defence of Fatherland in new situation

Assoc. Prof. Dr. HOANG XUAN CHIEN

General, Member of Party Central Committee, member of Military Commission

                                                                                           Defence Deputy Minister

COMMUNIST REVIEW – Being a part in the State’s foreign relations activities, under the Party’s leadership, directly under the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee, the Defence Ministry, in recent time, the defence foreign relations have recorded the important achievements, contributing to defending independence, sovereignty and interests of the country-the nation; firmly maintained the environment of peace and stability to build, raise the prestige and position of the country and the Vietnam People’s Army in international arena.

Achievements of defence foreign relations in the struggle for national liberation and in building and defending the Fatherland

In the two resistance wars against the French colonialists and the US imperialists, having grasped and implemented the Party’s advocacies and polices on foreign relations: “The Vietnamese revolution is a part of the world revolution”, “to help friend is to help ourselves”, defence foreign relations played a specially important role in the fighting alliance with two friendly countries of Laos and Cambodia to fight against the common enemy on the Indochinese Peninsula, contributing to consolidating the strength of militant solidarity between our Army and the People’s Armies of Laos and Cambodia.

Together with it, the defence foreign relations had also become an important channel to receive the support and help of the Soviet Union, China and a number of friendly and fraternal countries in the world, from equipment, weapons, ammunition, logistics, army medicine to sending our cadres to these contries to learn fighting experience, improve the level of military political theory and fighting method, makng an important contribution to building and developing the Vietnam People’s Army, meeting in time the urgent requirements of the resistance war. During this time, the Vietnam People’s Army organized the introductionto the armies of many countries in the world of the experience in building the forces, the experience in the political struggle, in the armed struggle and the arts of undertaking the people’s war and through it, we had expanded the  military and defence relations and further enhanced the prestige and position of the Vietnam People’s Army with the international friends.

Through the defence foreign relations, Vietnam had not only enlisted and promoted the effectiveness of the strength of the international solidarity, but also made an active contribution to consolidating and enhancing the solidarity within the system of socialist countries, contributing to performing successfully the advocacy of international solidarity, combining the national strength with the epochal strength, creating the synergy to win over the aggressive troops, completing the liberation of the South of Vietnam and the national reunification.

During the construction and defence of the Fatherland, particularly after 1986, in the light of the renovation of the 6^th Party Congress, with the “wide open” foreign relations line, Vietnam had expanded its defence foreign relations and cooperation with many countries. The defence foreign relations at this time continued to be an important diplomatic channel with a lot of renovations, contributing together with the State diplomacy to breaking the the siege and embargo, promoting the process of normalizing the relations with China and the  US, making a contribution to maintaining firmly the environment of peace and stability for national construction and enhancement of defence potential.

In the international integration period, grasping and deploying the foreign relations line of the Party through the Party Congresses, implementing the Resolution of the 8^th Plenum, the 11^th tenure, on October 25, 2013, “On the Strategy of protecting the Fatherland in the new situation”; the Resolution No. 22-NQ/TW, on April 10, 2013 of the Political Bureau, “On international integration” and the Resolution No. 806-NQ/QUTW, on December 31, 2013, of the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee, “On international integration and defence foreign relations to the year 2020 and the years after that”, the defence foreign relations continued to deploy “in an active, proactive, firm, flexible and effective manner”, obtaining a lot of important achievements. International cooperation and defence foreign relations continued to expand and develop both intensively and extensively, becoming an important content in the party’s foreign relations, the State diplomacy and the people-to-people foreign relations; to build the all-people defence with the aim of promoting the national strength in combination with the epochal strength, creating the synergy – a solid groundwork to carry out the scheme of protecting the Fatherland soon and from a far.

The important results and successes of the defence foreign relations have make the practical contributions to the firm protection of independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity of the Fatherland; raised the prestige and position of the country in general and of the Vietnam People’s Army in particular in the international arena; made a contribution to settling the border, territorial issues, building the border line of peace and friendship; combining flexibly between cooperation and struggle, treating well the defence relationship with the countries inside and outside the region, especially the big powers, creating the intermingled position of interests, maintaining firmly the environment of peace, stability, preventing the danger of conflict and war, serving the construction and development of the country; making a contribution to consolidating and promoting the defence potential, building the regular, elite and modern army; raising the effectiveness of combining the political, military and diplomatic struggle in the task of protecting the Fatherland.

To implement the Party’s viewpoint “of combining the national strength with the epochal strength, to be proactive and active in intensive and extensive international integration”, the defence foreign relations are proactive to expand the bilateral relations with the countries in the world. Up to now, Vietnam has got the defence relations with over 100 counrries, including 5 permanent member countries of the UN Security Council and the big powers in the world. The defence cooperation between Vietnam and countries has been going into the depth with the contents and areas of practical cooperation, conforming to the conditions, requirements and interests of our country and the partner countries, focusing on such areas as the exchange of delegations, the consulting mechanisms, dialogues, training, cooperation of the military arms and services, defence industry, military medicine, salvage and rescue, the joint patrol of land and sea borders, the border defence friendly exchanges; to be proactive in taking part in and organizing to play host of the international military games, such as the Army Games, the ASEAN military games; having obtained the high effectiveness in cooperation of overcoming the war aftermath; treating the pollution of bombs, mines and agent orange toxic chemincal/dioxin, contributing to the economic and social development in many key areas countrywide.

On the multilateral defence foreign relations, Vietnam has taken an active part with responsibility and step by step been proactive in contributing to policy building and making, proposed a lot of initiatives of value at the cooperation mechanism on defence and security in the region and the world such as the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM), the expanded ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM+), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Shangri-La, the Moscow International Security Conference, the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, the Seoul Defence Dialogue and so on.

Especially, the success of the 2020 ASEAN Chair on the defence channel was the milestone of the defence foreign relations. With the greatest efforts, the flexible, creative measures to have overcome the difficulties and impediments because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam has fulfilled successfully all the defence and military contents and activities, ensured effectively and essentially the content, the royal, considerate treatment and reception, absolutely safe in terms of security, healthcare and cyber security. The fine results of the military and defence conferences during the years Vietnam took on the role of the ASEAN Chair, prominent was  the ADMM-14, the 7^th ADMM+ and the 10^th ceremony of the founding anniversary of ADMM+, and it once agains affirms the role, position and prestige of Vietnam in general, of the Vietnam’s People’s Army in particular in the region and in the international arena.

In the UN framework, since 2014, Vietnam has sent over 250 turns of cadres and staffmen with three waves of field hospitals to the UN Peace keeping mission in South Sudan, the Cenral African Republic and the UN headquarters; is completing the preparation to deploy the army engineering team to UNISFA mission in Sudan. Through this, it can affirm Vietnam’s responsibilities in performing the obligations of the UN member country, making an active contribution to the world peace.

The achievements of the defence foreign relations in recent time has originated from the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Party, the unified management and operation of the State, directly here is the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and the Defence Ministry; the close, effective coordination among the ministries, departments, sectors, localities, the foreign relations channels and the determined willpower, greatest efforts of the contingent of cadres and staffmen to implement the tasks of defence foreign relations with the spirit of “any task can be completed, any difficulties can be overcome”. These achievements continue to affirm and deepen further the lesson of raising high the spirit of independence, autonomy, always place the interests of the country-the nation above all else; to apply creatively, flexibly and effectively the viewpoint of international solidarity of Maxism-Leninism and the Party’s military and defence line, the Ho Chi Minh ideology and diplomatic style and the diplomatic tradition of Vietnam to the new conditions of the country.

A number of tasks, solutions to lift defence foreign relations level, meeting the requirements of construction and defence of the Fatherland in the new situation      

In the coming time, the political environment and security in the world and region will continue to see the complicated developments, hidden with a lot of risks and instabilities; the construction and defence of the socialist Fatherland are standing before many new opportunities, but also meeting with a lot of difficulties and challenges, and many new and ever higher requirements are being set for the defence foreign relations. The strategic competition and the gathering of force by the big powers are happening very fiercely. In the region and the world there have appeared the very violent contradictions, competitions and confrontations, even there are conflicts and war between nations, between the newly gathered forces. Apart from that, the struggle to protect sovereignty and territorial integrity is still in difficulties and challenges; the hostile forces have not abandoned their plot of “peace evolution” to sabotage the Vietnamese revolution; the non-traditional issues such as natural disasters, environmental security, water source security, cyber security, transnational crimes, terrorism have been making ever deeper impacts on our country in all fields, including the national defence, therefore, it demands to have more international cooperation to solve the problems.

The above situation has made direct impacts on the military and defence tasks, on the building of the Army and the defence of the Fatherland, demanding that the defence foreign relations should continue to apply and promote the recorded achievements; at the same time, to raise the thinking and action level, to renew both the content and form, continue to promote the vanguard role of the foreign relations in setting up and firmly maintaining the environment of peace and stability, mobilize the outside resources to develop the country, raise the position and prestige of the country, making a contribution to implementing successfully the task of building the revolutionary, regular, elite and step-by-step modernized people’s Army, and some military arms, services and forces will advance straight to modernity. By 2025, fundamentally, the Army will be built into the streamlined, strong army, creating firm premises so as to strive to 2030, to build “the revolutionary , regular, elite and modern people’s Army” (1), making an active contribution to the construction and defence of the Fatherland in the new situation. To complete the above-said targets, the defence foreign relations should focus on implementing synchronously some tasks and solutions as follows:

Firstly, to enhance the absolute and direct leadership in all aspects of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the unified management of the State and the Government’s operation, directly are the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and the Defence Ministry, regarding the defence foreiogn relations in the new situation. To deploy effectively the foreign relations line as is determined in the Documents of the 13^th Party Congress; the Resolution of the 8^th Plenum of the 11^th tenure, on October 25, 2013, “On the Strategy of defending the Fatherland in the new situation”; the Resolution No. 22-NQ/TW on April 10, 2013 of the Political Bureau, 11^th tenure, “On international integration”; the Resolution of the 11^th Congress of the Army Party Committee and the Resolution No. 806-NQ/QUTW, on December 31, 2013 of the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee, “On international integration and defence foreign relations to the year 2020 and the following years”. To implement consistently the foreign relations line of independence, autonomy, to promote to the maximumthe internal strength and take advantage of external strength; to be persistent in the policy of multilateralization and diversification of the relationsin accordance with the motto of “having more friends and less enemies”; to combine closely the foreign relations with national defence and security; to combine the defence foreign relations with the overall strategy of the Party’s foreign relations, the State’s diplomacy and the people-to-people; between the diplomatic struggle and the field struggle of the forces to foil all the plots and tricks of violating sovereignty, the right to sovereignty, the jurisdiction and the national interests of Vietnam; to enhance the consolidation of the battle array of Vietnam’s national defence in the strategy of defending the Fatherland.

Secondly, to continue to renew the mindset, raise the consciousness of theentire Party, people and army concerningthe position, role and task of defence foreign relations in the overall foreign relations of the Party, the State’s diplomacy and the people’s foreign relations, to serve the task of building and defending the Fatherland in the new situation.It is determined that defence foreign relations is one of the pillars to promote the political relations, to build the confidence with the countries, at the same time it is the direct forum to cooperate and struggle to firmly maintain the environment of peace and stability, making an important contribution to the firm protection of independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity of the Fatherland, to protect the Party, the  State, the people and the socialist regime; to raise the prestige and position of the country and the army in the region and in the international arena, making an active contribution to peace, national independence, democracy and social progress in the region and in the whole world; to take advantage of the external resources to enhance the defence potential, to serve effectively the task of building the step-by-step, modern, regular, elite and revolutionary army.

Thirdly, to improve the quality of the study of forecast and strategic advise in terms of defence foreign relations. To enhance the grasp, study, situation forecast and strategic advise, particularly the trends and new move in the region and the world, the strategic competition, the force gathering, the meddling of the big powers, the East Sea situation; the territorial border; to pay attention to assessing and analyzing the advantages and difficulties, the direct impact on security – national defence of the country and the task of defence foreign relations, served as the base to give advisory ideas to help the Party, the State, the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and the Defence Ministry build and plan the strategies, the policies on the defence foreign relations and the measures to treat in time and correctly the relations with the countries, the international organizations, in conformity with the international and regional context and with the process of international integration of our country, meeting the requirements and tasks of defending the Fatherland in the new situation. To constantly coordinate closely and effectively with the relevant ministries, departments, sectors, localities and forces in studying the forecast and the strategic staff on defence foreign relations, with a view to promoting the synergy in analyzing and judging the situation, thus taking this work into the depth and effectiveness.

Fourthly, to raise the effectiveness of the bilateral defence foreign relations, to take the cooperative relations with the countries into the depth and essence. To promote the bilateral defence cooperative relations, consolidate the political trust with the neighbouring countries, with the strategic partners, the comprehensive partners, with the ASEAN countries and the traditional friendly countries, in the principle of ensuring the national interests, equality and mutual benefits and abiding by the international law. In the process of deployment, it is necessary to be persistent in the issues of principle character, but clever, flexible and supple in behaviour, carrying out “Acting accordance with circumstances”; determine clearly the “partners”, the “objects” for both cooperation and struggle, increase cooperation, avoid conflict and confrontation, avoid being isolated, dependent or being fallen in the position of having to “choose the sides”. To enhance the measures to build the strategic confidence and mutual understanding, “to have more friends and less enemies”, consistent in settling the differences and conflicts by peaceful means, in the spirit of abiding by the international law, the UN Charter. To diversify the forms and contents of the defence foreign relations; to deploy effectively the contents of the signed cooperation, to focus on promoting the consulting mechanisms, dialogues, cooperation of the arms and services, training, defence industries, military medicine, salvage and rescue, friendly exchanges of border defence, overcome the war aftermath and maintain peace of the UN…., in conformity with the strong position of each partner and requirements of Vietnam.

Fifthly, to implement actively and effectively the Instructions No. 25-CT/TW of the Secretariat “On enhancing and raising the multilateral foreign relations level in the new situation”. To be active and proactive in contributing to building and making the policies, to proposing the initiatives and participating with responsibilities and effectiveness in the mechanisms and the regional and international security forums, particularly the defence cooperation mechanism within the ASEAN framework , with the ASEAN playing the key role, contributing to building the ASEAN Poliitical-Security Community, making an active contribution to maintaining peace, stability and development in the region and the world. To continue to promote the participation in the UN peace-keeping activities according to the Resolution No. 130/2020/QH14, on November 13, 2020 of the National Assembly, “On the participation in the UN peace-keeping force” in the direction of expanding the areas, fields and size.

Sixthly, to be active and proactive to improve the quality and effectiveness of foreign relaions information and propaganda. To combine synchronously the armed forces, measures so as to give timely information to cadres, soldiers, people, compariots of Vietnam overseas and the international community to understand clearly the advocacies and lines on foreign relations, the policies on national defence of peace and self-defence of the Party and the State, the development achievements of the country and of the Vietnam People’s Army; making the world know Vietnam not only as a peace-loving and vigorously developing country, but also the country which has been participating with responsibility in settling the international and regional problems, for peace, development and properity of the world people. And through this, to make a contribution to improving the effectiveness of the defence foreign relations; creating the consensus and support to the construction and defence of the Fatherland of the Party, the State and the Army in the new situation, against all the distorting allegations of the hostile forces which have taken advantage of the issue of international integration and defence foreign relations to divide the Party, the Army with our people.

Seventhly, to continue to perfect the system of legal documents relating to defence foreign relations, ensuring that they are conforming to the international law and practices and they are synchronous and unified with the legal documents of the national foreign relations, conforming to the characteristics of the activities of the defence foreign relations, thus meeting the immediate and long-term requirements. In the immediate, to build the Strategy of international integration and defence foreign relations to the year 2030 and the following years and submit it to the Government for promulgation, so as to be served as the basis to deploy the defence foreign relations tasks, thus meeting the requirements of building and defending the Fatherland in the new situation. To enhance the coordination among the agencies and units that have involved in the defence foreign relations in the entire army, at the same time to accelerate the coordination with the relevant ministires, departments, sectors and localities in deploying the effective implementation of the tasks of defence foreign relations.

Eighthly, to perfect the organization, improve the quality of the contingent of cadres who do the work of international integration and defence foreign relations. To continue to perfect the organization of the apparatus in the foreign relations agencies in the efficient, effective and streamlined direction; to take synchronously many measures of building the contingent of cadres who do the defence foreign relations work with the firm political abilities, the strict awareness of organization and discipline, the healthy and pure qualities, morality and lifestyle, with the all-round knowledge, proficiency in profession and speciality, foreign languages, meeting the requirements of expanding and lifting the defence foreign relations level in the new situation./.

--------------------------

(1) See: The Documents of the 13^th National Party Congress, the  Truth National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, tomb I, p. 157 - 158

Source: COMMUNIST REVIEW, No. 987 (April 2022)