Enhancing the Homeland protection under the Party’s Platform

 The grasp and performance of the task of defending the Homeland under the spirit of the Party’s Platform on “building the country in the transitional period towards socialism” in the past 30 years, especially the 10-year implementation of the Party’s Platform of 2011 represent a renewal and development in our Party’s perception together with creative approaches; therefore, our Party has obtained remarkable achievements and fully understood weaknesses and unresolved issues to propose remedial measures.

Inheriting, supplementing, and developing the 1991 Platform on “building the country in the transitional period towards socialism,” in the Platform of 2011 our Party stated that “national defence and security’s goal and task are to safeguard the country’s independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity, to protect the Party, the State, the people and the socialist regime, to maintain peace, political stability, national security, and social order and safety, to proactively prevent and thwart the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage against our people’s revolutionary cause.”

Adhering to the Homeland protection task in its Platform and the situation’s developments, in its Central Resolutions No.8 (9^th and 11^th tenure) on “the Strategy for the Homeland defence in the new situation,” our Party more comprehensively and sufficiently supplemented this task which was to safeguard the country’s independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity, to protect the Party, the State, the people, the renewal, industrialisation and modernisation cause, and the country’s benefits and culture, and to maintain political stability and peaceful environment for the country’s socialist-oriented development. At the same time, it clearly identified our partners and opponents in the Homeland construction and protection.

At its 11^th National Congress, our Party included “the defence of sea and island sovereignty” and “the settlement of non-traditional security challenges” in the defence-security task, while stressing the term “proactive security.” At the Party’s 12^th National Congress, the Homeland protection task also included “proactively fighting to foil all plots and acts of sabotage by the hostile forces, preventing and refuting wrong information and arguments, pushing back crimes of all types and social evils, readily responding to traditional and non-traditional security threats, and ensuring information safety and cyber security.” While the Party’s Platform advocated “combining defence and security with economy,” its 12^th National Congress’ Documents emphasised the importance of closely combining defence and security with diplomacy, enhancing defence-security international cooperation, building a firm “posture of people hearts and minds” as the basis for the construction of the all-people national defence and the people’s security, developing strategies to avoid the risks of war and conflict from afar, proactively detecting and eradicating detriments, particularly the internal factors that could bring about dramatic negative changes. In addition, our Party and State developed and issued the National Defence Strategy, the Military Strategy, the Strategy for the Homeland protection in Cyberspace, the Strategy for the National Border Protection, the National Defence Law of 2018, the Vietnam Coast Guard Law, the Militia and Self-Defence Force Law, and the Reserve Force Law (the Vietnam Border Defence Law in the foreseeable future). Those documents would lay a solid foundation for the armed forces’ operations to meet the requirements set by the military, defence, and security tasks in the new situation.

During the process of executing the Platform, the mechanism for the Party’s leadership over the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security has been supplemented and perfected to ensure the Party’s absolute, direct leadership over the armed forces, the defence-security task, and the Homeland protection. The People’s Army and the People’s Public Security will be made revolutionary, regular, seasoned, gradually modern, and absolutely loyal to the Homeland, the Party, the State and the people. The defence-security task in any circumstance must be placed under the Party’s close, absolute leadership and the State’s management.

We have gained many important achievements in the 30-year execution of the 1991 Platform, especially the 10-year implementation of the 2011 Platform and in the performance of the Party’s resolutions on the Homeland protection. It is worth noting that we have safeguarded the country’s independence, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, and benefits, protected the Party, the State, the people and the socialist regime, maintained peace for the country’s development, and raised Vietnam’s status in the international arena.

However, there have been several weaknesses in performing the defence-security and Homeland protection missions. More specifically, mechanisms, policies and laws on defence and security have yet to be perfected. The work of combining defence with security and aligning defence and security with socio-economic development and diplomacy has yet to be harmonious or synchronous, while mechanisms for inspecting and supervising this work have yet to be specific or clear. There has been a lack of specific mechanisms and measures for building the all-people national defence, the posture of all-people national defence, the people’s security, and the posture of people’s security. There have been complex developments in “self-evolution,” “self-transformation,” and degradation in political ideology, ethics and lifestyle. The work of studying, assessing and anticipating the situation has yet to be thorough or timely.

The Homeland protection under the Party’s Platform in the upcoming time will be confronted with a lot of critical issues, such as the relationship between itself and economic development, the response to hi-tech warfare and non-traditional security challenges, the identification of partners and opponents, and the defence of sea and island sovereignty. Therefore, it is necessary to grasp and synchronously implement several measures as follows.

First, strengthen the Party’s leadership, regularly grasp the Party’s guidelines, viewpoints and new thoughts on the Homeland protection, and consider them as the lodestar for the performance of the defence-security task. This is the most important lesson and measure for the defence-security mission. When executing the Platform, with its accurate assessments of the global, regional and domestic situations as well as its strategic vision and scientific thinking, our Party has formulated the guidelines for the Homeland construction and protection creatively in accordance with the country’s practical conditions. Our Party has brought into play the national great unity strength, combined both domestic and global strength, and taken advantage of external resources to create the synergy for fighting to thwart the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage, firmly protecting the national independence, unification, and territorial integrity, and maintaining peace, security, and social order and safety for the goal of national construction and development. Doing so has provided the basis for our achievements in the defence-security missions.

Second, grasp and effectively realise directions for the Homeland protection and the building of the people’s armed forces. Directions for the performance of the defence-security task serve as a matter of paramount importance and lay a solid foundation for us to correctly identify the goal and method of defending the country’s interests and maintain political security and social order and safety. Thus, it is essential to grasp the situation and synchronously deal with the issues posed by reality, accurately anticipate the global, regional and domestic situations, comprehend defence and security challenges, and opportunely, flexibly employ strategies to settle all situations and avoid passivity. The prime goal of performing the defence-security task is to prevent and push back the risks of conflict and instability, and readily, successfully respond to any situation. Doing so will enable us to firmly defend the Homeland and ensure national security. Thoroughly grasping the directions for the defence-security task will also allow us to develop the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security with the compact, strong, effective organisational structure and make them capable of fulfilling all missions assigned by our Party and State. Moreover, in order to increase the country’s defence-security capability, we should stimulate the development of modern, dual-purpose defence and security industries.

Third, enhance the ideological work and boost the socio-economic, cultural development as the basis for performing the defence-security task. We should frequently conduct the work of propagation and education to render the people fully aware of the Party’s guidelines and the State’s law and policy on the defence-security task, while unmasking the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage. Due attention should be paid to providing defence and security education for all groups of learners. We should diversify forms of legal propagation, education and dissemination for all people. Consideration should be given to proactively fighting to foil the hostile forces’ sabotage scheme and their plots to take advantage of the issues on ethnicity and religion to engage our people in demonstrations and riots. Importance should be attached to fostering the socio-economic, cultural development, considering economic development as the centre, regarding the Party building as the key, rating culture as the society’s spiritual foundation, and seeing defence-security consolidation as a routine, major task. In addition, we must properly, harmoniously settle the relationship between the socio-economic development and the construction of the all-people national defence and the building of revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security.

Fourth, readily, opportunely deal with new forms of warfare, hi-tech warfare, and non-traditional security threats. We should frequently study, monitor and grasp the developments in new forms of warfare and hi-tech warfare. Due attention should be paid to synchronously settling strategic issues and proposing viewpoints, principles, contents and methods relating to combat. Emphasis should be placed on building forces, developing defence and security industries straight to modernity, and manufacturing modern weapons and equipment in Vietnam to respond to all situations. In the new condition, we should continue to affirm that the developed people’s war will still be an effective way to deal with hi-tech and new-style warfare; modern weapons and equipment are important and indispensable, but human factor is the most important in a war. Therefore, it is essential to build up cadres and soldiers’ political zeal and train them to master modern technologies, weapons, and equipment. Great value should be attached to developing human resources of the armed forces and the Vietnamese military art in the new condition, applying advancements in science and technology, and studying measures against hi-tech, new-style warfare. Currently, non-traditional security threats become a common issue of the whole world. Hence, we should undertake researches into the scales, possibilities, developments of non-traditional security threats to our country to make all necessary preparations and work towards effective remedial measures. At the same time, we should proactively take part in global institutions and solutions to effectively respond to non-traditional security challenges.

Fifth, clearly identify our partners and opponents. To that end, we must strictly abide by the Party’s leadership, the Constitution, and the State’s law, ensure the country’s supreme interests, raise a sense of vigilance, and protect national secrets. We will describe our opponents’ nature and actions instead of calling them by names. Our opponents include (1) aggressive forces and their allies as our basic, long-term enemies, (2) major powers which have a desire for violation of Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty and national interests and their vassals as our direct, dangerous, and long-term enemies, (3) reactionary organisations both at home and abroad, political opportunists, and those who show the signs of degradation in political ideology and morality and readily support external forces as our dangerous enemies. Grounded on those viewpoints, we must objectively and comprehensively identify our external opponents in each situation, while exposing the danger of our internal opponents. It is vital to remain vigilance, grasp the situation, opportunely detect opponents’ plots and actions, maintain both cooperation and struggle, take advantage of aspects of agreement, reduce differences, add more friends, decrease enemies, avoid being isolated, opportunely prevent alliances from waging wars of aggression against our country.

With reference to allies and alliances, it is necessary to be fully aware that in the intense competition between major powers, if we rely on one major power as our ally, we will become a strategic opponent of others. Therefore, we should remain steadfastness in the “four-no’s” policy, have more friends and fewer enemies, maintain a balance in our relations with all major powers, establish and foster our relations with all countries, particularly our strategic partners, more deeply and widely integrate into the world, increase the interweaving of benefits with many countries, prevent the risk of war, and successfully deal with all forms of war of aggression.

Sixth, defend our sea and island sovereignty. The defence of our sea and island sovereignty must be placed under the absolute, direct leadership from the Party, particularly from the Politburo and the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, and under the State’s uniform management. All people will engage in this task, but the armed forces will play a decisive role. We should enhance the work of propagation and education to raise the awareness and responsibility of the entire Party, Military, people and political system in the defence of our sea and island sovereignty.

Furthermore, we should build regular, elite, modern Navy, Air Defence - Air Force Service and Coast Guard, while improving the armed forces’ synergy and combat power and making them capable of protecting the Homeland’s airspace, seas and islands. Due attention should be paid to building the postures of all-people national defence and people’s security at sea and consolidating defensive zones on our islands and mainland. Moreover, we must enhance our capabilities in studying, grasping, and anticipating situations in order to take actions opportunely and effectively. Last but not least, we should promote international cooperation and raise the effectiveness of defence-security diplomacy in the defence of our sea and island sovereignty.