Ensuring national defence and security - an important and regular task of the Party

 Ensuring national defence and security is an important and regular task of the Party. It is also an important content in the guidelines on the direction and tasks of the 13th National Congress and the following years of the Party, which should be thoroughly understood and implemented synchronously and effectively by the entire Party, people, and political system, especially the armed forces.

Ensuring national defence and security is an important and regular task of the entire Party, people and Army and it is the Party's consistent stance on Fatherland’s construction and defence. In the Document of the 13^th National Party Congress, our Party clearly stated: "Resolutely and persistently struggle to firmly protect the Fatherland’s independence, sovereignty, unity and territory integrity; protect the Party, the State, the People and the socialist regime; ensure political security, social order and safety, human security, economic security, cyber security; build an orderly and disciplined society. This is the inheritance of the experience and tradition of thousands of years of "constructing in parallel with safeguarding the Fatherland" of the nation, as well as the appropriate application and development of the Party, to meet the requirements of protecting the Fatherland in the new situation. In particular, affirming that ensuring national defence and security is a cross-cutting point of view and ideology, and also a very important task, which should be paid special attention to during the revolutionary process and every period of the country's history. At the same time, it emphasizes the dialectical relationship between strengthening national defence and military with ensuring national security, maintaining social order and safety, contributing to the successful implementation of two strategic tasks of construction and protection of the Fatherland. In order to fully grasp and put this important point of view into practice, it is necessary to carry out synchronously and drastically the following key solutions:

Firstly, emphasis should be regularly placed on raising awareness, responsibility and capability for subjects that are relevant to the task of ensuring national defence and security in the new situation. This is considered the most important content and solution to unify awareness on this basic point of view in the whole society. Therefore, the entire Party, people and Army should thoroughly grasp the Party's viewpoints, the situation and tasks of national construction and development in the new time; continue to renew thinking and uphold a correct view on both theory and practice of national defence; regularly update the developments in the world, the region and the country, and promptly update the issues affecting national defence and security.

In order to achieve that goal, attention should be paid to strengthening training and improving the comprehensive capability of cadres and party members at all levels, particularly the ability to collect, synthesise, analyse information at strategic level, thereby helping the cadres improve their leadership, management and commanding capability. Along with that, importance should be attached to renewing thinking on national defence and security, improving management capacity of organisations, units, personnel, material and technical facilities in accordance with new requirements; focusing on improving practical skills, effectively implementing tasks of construction, operation, struggle and combat, and timely and accurately handling situations, especially at strategic level. To meet the requirements and tasks, it is necessary to continue to research and develop theories on national defence, and Homeland’s defence and security, focusing on basic and practical theoretical issues of all people’s national defence and people’s security; potentials, forces, and defence and military posture. Attention should be paid to renewing and improving the quality and effectiveness of education on national defence and security to different objects, raising understanding and improving ability to evaluate and properly and effectively handle relations with neighbouring countries, major powers, strategic partners, and comprehensive partners; properly and effectively managing the relationship between economic development and national defence and security consolidation, between the maintenance of independence, self-reliance and international integration, between the partners and the objects, between practicing democracy and strengthening the rule of law, ensuring social discipline,... meeting the requirements and tasks of national defence and construction.

Secondly, bringing into full play synergy, taking the strength of the armed forces as the core. Synergy in performing the task of ensuring national defence and security is made up of a close combination of the synergy of the people's armed forces and the synergy from all other forces and resources of the country; between the strength of the nation and the power of the times; ... in which, the strength of the armed forces always plays a pivotal role. Therefore, one  important thing is to apply appropriate solutions to building and improving the overall quality and combat strength of the People's Army and People's Public Security; focusing on basic, practical, and key issues. To do that, it is necessary to regularly maintain and strengthen the absolute, direct and all-round leadership of the Party, the centralised and unified management of the State over the Army and the Public Security, considering it an immutable principle. Importance should also be attached to constantly improving the quality and efficiency of the Party’s and political work in performing tasks of national defence and security; building clean and strong party organisations in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel, etc. On that basis, it is important to successfully implement the Party's strategic guidelines on building the Army and Public Security Forces to be elite, compact, strong, and heading towards modernity, in relevance with the country's condition, political and military situations in the world and the region, meeting both immediate and long-term requirements. It is necessary to implement a reasonable process of force development (especially the active and young forces), invest in weapons, equipment and platforms in the direction of building a regular, seasoned, and modern armed forces. Attention should be paid to planning and accelerating the work of education and training of the armed forces, innovating subjects’ contents, programs and teaching methodology; conducting research on and developing Vietnam's military art, etc…. improving combat strength to meet current and future defence and security requirements, especially the capability to operate in high-tech combat conditions, and  complex and harsh environment. At the same time, emphasis should be placed on mobilising all resources, focusing on the close combination between building potentials and defence postures with potentials and security postures, ensuring strength and meeting the requirements of both peace time and war time.

In which, it is necessary to clearly define the roadmap and successfully implement strategies that are directly related to national defence and security, such as: Strategy for Fatherland Protection; National Defence Strategy; Military Strategy; National Security Protection Strategy; National Border Protection Strategy; Strategy for Defending the Fatherland in Cyberspace; and National Cyber security Strategy, etc. Along with that, attention should be paid to strengthening the development of economy, culture, society and foreign relations, closely linking them with defence and security; focusing on strategies on each field, such as: strategy on socio-economic development; strategy on science and technology; strategy on education and training; strategies on sea and islands, etc., closely attaching them with the reality and promptly adjusting and supplementing them in accordance with the new situation. These are a very important factors to promote and build potentials and bring into play the power of the all people’s national defence posture and the people's security posture; constantly building, consolidating and developing synergy to ensure national defence and security at all stages of the country's development.

Thirdly, supplementing and adjusting the legal system, mechanisms and policies related to the task of ensuring national defence and security. These are factors that directly affect the quality and effectiveness of national defence and security. In particular, in the context of globalisation and deep and broadened international integration, and ever enhanced cooperation between countries, the development of these factors becomes ever more important. Therefore, functional agencies need to continue to review, advise, and propose supplementations and adjustments to the legal system, and relevant mechanisms and policies, ensuring the synchronism, consistency and conformity with new situations and requirements. So far, the legal system on the work of national defence and security has been regularly consolidated, and brought into play its good effects in practice, such as National Defence Law, National Border Law, Law on National Defence and Security Education, Law on Reserves and Mobilization, Law on Militia and Self-Defence Forces; National Security Law, Cyber security Law, etc. However, there remain uniformity, inadequacy and inconsistency in a number of legal documents. Meanwhile, the situation is always evolving, requiring the supplementations and adjustments of these laws, especially when there appears issues that require the coordination - combination between fields and agencies and should be legislated and guided for implementation by specific sub-law documents. Along with that, it is necessary to continue to improve the operational mechanism on ensuring national defence and security in line with reality. On the basis of sticking to the general mechanism: "The Party leads, the State manages, and the people master", it is necessary to have a more specific and closer mechanism in combining national defence with security, national defence and security with specialised activities of ministries and branches; clearly defining the specific responsibilities and operating procedures of the subjects; overcoming the problems of formality and inefficiencies. With regard to the policy of ensuring national defence and security, the State has adopted policies to encourage and mobilise spiritual, material, and physical strengths for the cause of national defence and construction, such as: policies on socio-economic development, social security, health insurance, social insurance, policy on ethnic people, and policy on religious practice, etc. However, in the face of new developments of the situation, functioning agencies should continue to study and give advice to the Party and State to better supplement the policies in these aspects; focusing on the substance of policies, especially policies towards people with meritorious services, armed forces rear, and attracting and training talents and high-quality human resources, etc., so as to improve the effectiveness of performing the task of ensuring national defence and security of the entire Party, people, Army, and the whole political system in all revolutionary stages and tasks.

To realise the goals and aspirations of building a prosperous and happy country of the entire nation, the work of strengthening national defence and security becomes ever more important, requiring the entire Party, people and Army to uphold high political determination and make greater efforts; bringing into full play the patriotic and self-reliant spirit, the strength of the great national unity; constantly consolidating combat strength, maintaining political security, social order and safety, firmly safeguarding the Fatherland, and creating favourable conditions for the country's rapid and sustainable development.