Vietnam has officially assumed the rotary Chair of ASEAN after the 35th ASEAN Summit held in Bangkok, Thailand. Undertaking the ASEAN Chair gives Vietnam a good chance to show responsibilities and promote cooperation for national development and integration but also poses challenges for the country.

Vietnam takes the ASEAN Chair in the context that the ASEAN Community has been formed as the result of the 50 years of cooperation and is in its initially phase of developing into a politically, economically, and socially close-knit community. 2020 is the important year in implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. However, ASEAN is now facing both subjective and objective difficulties and challenges, ranging from differences in the levels of development among ASEAN countries to impacts from competition among major powers in the world.

For more than five decades of development, ASEAN has experienced a good number of upheavals. As the old saying goes, “after the storm, comes the calm,” ASEAN has grown up and become stronger and more resilient after all the challenges. The key to success for ASEAN is unity. It can be seen that, in order to sustain and effectively adapt to the complicated fluctuation in the regional and international environment, ASEAN must maintain solidarity, unity and economic resilience and be capable of proactively and quickly responding to emerging challenges. Therefore, as the rotary Chair of ASEAN in 2020, Vietnam bears significant responsibilities on its shoulders.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha (L) hands the chairmanship hammer to his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc

The year 2020 is also special as it marks the 25th anniversary of Vietnam’s admission to ASEAN. Joining ASEAN can be seen as a strategic and wise decision of the Party and State of Vietnam, marking an important milestone in the country’s international integration process. Becoming an ASEAN member is one of the first significant steps for Vietnam to multilateralize and diversify its foreign relations. Joining ASEAN has brought benefits and opportunities for Vietnam to gradually integrate into the region and the world, enhance its domestic capacity and reforms, and promote its role and responsibilities in the international community. That success has created the momentum for Vietnam to firmly expand relations and enhance its international integration. As a result, Vietnam later joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), the Asia-Europe Cooperation Forum (ASEM), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and successfully became a member of many important UN agencies, such as the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, and more.

For its part, Vietnam has made considerable contributions to ASEAN’s tireless efforts to reach the goals of the ASEAN Community. In spite of remaining gaps to some extents between Vietnam and some other ASEAN member countries, we can be proud of the country’s significant contributions to the bloc over the past 25 years. In fact, Vietnam has shown its increasingly important role as an ASEAN member. Not a founding member, yet Vietnam has actively participated in and contributed to the association’s common activities, including its effort to admit Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to ASEAN. As a result, in 1999, the dream of a 10-member ASEAN bloc came true.

Vietnam has also shown an active role in defining the goals and orientations for the development and the formation of major policies of ASEAN. Vietnam’s imprints can be seen in major events, such as the 6th ASEAN Summit held in Hanoi in December 1998, the successful accomplishment of the term of Chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee in 2000-2001, and the successful completion of its role as the Chair of ASEAN in 2010, bringing about remarkable results.

For more than two decades being an ASEAN member, Vietnam has affirmed its role and prestige as an active, proactive, and responsible member, closely connecting and wholeheartedly working with other ASEAN members. Those experiences and successes will help Vietnam confidently undertake the ASEAN Chair in 2020, contributing to building a more close-knit and united ASEAN, which plays a central role in the region, and a strong ASEAN Community for the sake of all people’s prosperity. This is also a chance for Vietnam to actively promote bilateral relations with other ASEAN countries and partners, further enhance the country’s position in the international arena, and promote the image of the land, culture and people of Vietnam to the world.

Two separate groups of public security and foreign affairs officials departed for the United Kingdom at the weekend, following news that all victims in the Essex lorry tragedy were believed to be Vietnamese.

According to VNA, Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam confirmed on November 4th morning that the ministry’s mission had arrived in London the previous day.

Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam (Photo: VNA)

“The ministry has assigned a set of tasks, of which the foremost priority is to rapidly confirm the victims’ identities,” Lam told reporters on the sidelines of the National Assembly’s ongoing meeting.

“Our mission has brought along various essential documents and DNA samples to match and cross-check with those of the UK side to reach a final conclusion.”

The minister said that the Government would implement citizen protection measures as soon as Vietnamese nationals were confirmed as being involved in the case.

“If a Vietnamese national is identified, we will try to bring them home in the fastest way possible,” Lam said.

He added that the mission could only send their first working report back to Vietnam at 3pm on November 4th at the earliest due to the time difference.

The authorities so far are yet to confirm how many missing persons reported by Vietnamese families were connected to the Essex lorry case, the minister said.

“Families who lost contact with their children all assumed they could be among the 39 victims. But after a few days, some families found out that their children were still in Vietnam or had gone to another country,” Lam said.

Police in the central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh received 34 reports of missing persons between October 24th and November 1st. Three families in Nghe An, however, on November 2 announced that they managed to contact their thought-to-be-missing members who were abroad.

In a statement late on November 2nd (UK time), Essex police said they believed the victims in the Essex lorry case were Vietnamese, adding that they have identified some of the victims and have contacted the Vietnamese Government and some families in the UK and Vietnam.

The confirmatory evidence needed to formally present cases to HM Senior Coroner for consideration has not yet been obtained, they said.

"This evidence is being gathered across a number of jurisdictions worldwide. As a result, we cannot at this time announce the identity of any of the victims,” said the statement.

Essex police will continue to cooperate closely with the Vietnamese Government and others to identify the victims and offer support to all those affected by this tragedy.

Building foreign relations potential and military diplomatic arts are key contents that have been applied and made contributions to generating the overall strength to fight against the enemies in the struggle for national liberation in the past and the Homeland protection in peacetime. However, there are limitations in understanding and transforming them into theory in a thorough, comprehensive and unified manner. Therefore, it is necessary to undertake researches into these contents.

In our history of national construction and defence, our forefathers not only properly realized the importance of foreign affairs, but also carried out wisely, harmoniously and flexibly diplomatic policies, therefore maintaining friendship relations with neighboring countries, contributing to firmly protecting the Homeland, building a peaceful and prosperous country and providing the people with peaceful life.

After the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (September 2, 1945), foreign affairs were gradually formed and put into operation. In 1949 and 1950, activities on the diplomatic front of our country were conducted comprehensively on all three channels: the Party's diplomacy, the State's diplomacy and the people's diplomacy. Each had its own functions, tasks and modes of operation but supported each other in order to implement the Party's foreign policy and the goals of our revolutionary cause in each period. Although at first, these channels were not clearly defined and they overlapped each other, through the reality, functions, tasks, modes of operation of each channel were increasingly clear and effective. In the resistance wars against colonialism and imperialism, under the upright, creative and ingenious diplomatic guidelines by the Party, the military diplomacy merged with national diplomacy, successfully implementing the art of "fighting while negotiating” (attacking the enemy on the battlefield while fighting them at the negotiation table). At the same time, it took advantage of the huge human and material support and assistance, and the struggle for the righteousness from the peace-loving people around the world. It is the art of combining national power with the power of the times to win over the enemy. It can be said that in the cause of building and defending the country by our feudal dynasties as well as in the period of national liberation and Homeland defence, we have paid great attention to foreign affairs, planning and implementing the diplomatic policies with neighboring countries, proactively developing short and long-term diplomatic policies, attaching importance to building a contingent of cadres in charge of foreign affairs, especially talented and outstanding diplomats who could flexibly and accurately respond to the situation in negotiations. These have contributed to preventing and repelling the risk of war, changing the battlefield situation, ending wars, and restoring peace, such as: negotiations to sign the Geneva Agreement (in 1954), negotiations to sign the Paris Agreement (in 1973).

The proactive preparation of plans and human resources for conducting diplomatic struggles means we conducted the building of the country's foreign relations potential, creating the basis for combining diplomatic struggle with political and military struggles, promoting the comprehensive strength to defeat all invaders.

Although we have not had a comprehensive and thorough research into the building of the country's foreign relations potential during the wartime and the peacetime, but it is obvious that this content has been effectively implemented and mentioned in a number of documents, in different forms and dimensions. In general, the Party's awareness and thinking on foreign affairs and building foreign relations potential have been gradually developed, in accordance with the trends of the era and the situations of the country and the world and expressed consistently through its Congresses (from the VIII to the XI). The Party advocates combining economic development with national defence consolidation. Most recently, at the XII Congress, the Party pointed out: “Closely combining national defence and security with foreign affairs; strengthening international cooperation on national defence and security ...; having plans to opportunely prevent the risk of war and conflict.” The Resolution 28-NQ/TW by the Party Central Committee, the Decree 152/NĐ-CP and 02/NĐ-CP by the Government on the construction of defensive zones, and the Vietnam National Defence Strategy all mentioned the aspects of foreign affairs. Especially, the Section 5, Article 3 and Section 1, Article 10 of the Decree 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated February 22, 2019 by the Government on the defensive zones mentioned the building external affairs potential. Meanwhile, according to the Section 2, Article 7 of the National Defense Law, defence diplomacy is one of the basic contents of building the whole-people national defence. However, the way of expressing it in the documents is not yet consistent. Some mentioned it as defence diplomacy while others referred to it as external affairs potential. It is also not synchronized and fully mentioned in legal documents.

At present, the world’s security and political situation is undergoing rapid and unpredictable changes. The strategic competition among major powers, terrorism, riots, separatism, and armed conflicts tend to increase. In particular, the dispute of sovereignty in the South China Sea and some major powers’ disrespect for the international law have posed many difficulties and challenges to foreign affairs, the building of the whole-people national defence and the Homeland protection. Therefore, building the foreign relations potential of the whole-people national defence is an urgent issue in order to improve the defensive capabilities, prevent and repel the dangers of war; in other words, this is the implementation of the strategy to protect the Fatherland by peaceful means. To do that, in the coming time, it is necessary to focus on several key solutions as follows.

1. Building strategic trust with partners and the international community. In the context of deep and broadened international integration, in order to maximize the support of international friends, mobilize external resources to build the potential of the whole-people national defence, including foreign relations potential, strengthen national defence and protect the Fatherland, attention should be paid to building strategic trust with other countries. Only with strategic trust could we manage to cooperate in depth on defence aspects and others.

To that end, it is important to renew the diplomatic thinking in accordance with the new thinking on the Fatherland protection and to be fully aware that the concept of national interests has been expanded and developed. Vietnam's national interests, in addition to the three core interests, namely: the territorial sovereignty, the political regime and the people, include ones that are in association with the interests of each partnering country. It means we should create the position and strength to protect the nation both at home and abroad, not only for the benefits of Vietnam but also for the interests and common goals of the regional partners and the world. Accordingly, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp and creatively concretize the orientation and implementation of activities on all three diplomatic channels and the military diplomacy, to strengthen propaganda and propagation about Vietnam's views and stance on international relations and to further affirm that Vietnam is “a friend, a reliable partner, and a responsible member of the international community.” At the same time, we should also prove by our practical activities, such as the participation in the United Nations peacekeeping forces, the regional and the world forums on defence and security in order to improve comprehensive position of the country and create a favorable environment for building the whole-people national defence in general, and the foreign relations potential in particular.

2. Building comprehensively strong diplomatic agencies and a contingent of cadres that are in charge of foreign affairs and especially defence diplomacy. This force provides strategic advice for the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence on foreign affairs and defence diplomacy and directly implements the task. Therefore, it is necessary to have clear and detail plans with targets and roadmaps for each stage and department. First of all, it is necessary to focus on building a politically, ideologically, and organizationally strong department of foreign relations, improve its advisory role for the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence to successfully implement foreign affairs; effectively manage, direct, and guide agencies and units engaging in foreign relations and defence diplomacy. Moreover, more attention should be paid to building a strong contingent of cadres in charge of foreign relations at home and abroad to meet the task requirements. Particularly, the staff directly engaging in international relations and foreign affairs should be "both politically strong and professional" with qualified foreign language skills, good understanding and flexible application of the Party's viewpoints and policies on foreign relations,, and capability to work well in the international environment and give correct and timely advice to the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense on major issues related to the national defence, security, and foreign affairs. Successfully implementing this content will make contribution to building high quality human resources for the Foreign Affairs in general and defence diplomacy in particular.

3. Attaching importance to conducting researches aiming at improving the quality of giving advice and planning policies on defence diplomacy. First of all, foreign relations and international relations agencies at strategic level should thoroughly grasp the Party's viewpoints and policies on foreign relations, focusing on improving the ability to forecast the strategic situations in terms of defence and security. They should also proactively study the strategic directions of countries, stay close to reality, detect moves and changes in regional and international security, politics, and defence, and give advice to the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence on planning and adjusting plans to handle issues. On that basis, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence will give advice to the Party and the State on planning defence diplomacy policies, and formulating appropriate and effective foreign relations strategy to meet both immediate and long-term requirements; on expanding the scope, contents, forms, and subjects of external relations, and on participating in both bilateral and multilateral mechanisms on defence diplomacy. At the same time, the staff engaging in defence diplomacy should give advice to the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense, the Party, and the State to perfect legal documents related to defence diplomacy and the construction of its potential in the whole-people defence. Besides, emphasis should be placed on improving the effectiveness of coordination between defence diplomacy and the three foreign relations channels, the external relations of the Ministry of Public Security and localities, building a solid foreign relations front, preventing and repelling the risk of war, firmly maintaining a peaceful and stable environment for national construction and development.

These are initial studies aiming at improving the effectiveness of foreign relations in general, defence diplomacy and the accumulation of foreign relations potential of the whole-people national defence in particular, meeting requirements for building and defending the Fatherland in the new situation.

The Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam will continue implementing the 9th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 24-NQ/TW on ethnic affairs to boost development of minorities and mountainous areas.

While progress has been made in the implementation of the resolution, there’s still room for improvement, according to the Politburo’s conclusion issued recently.

The execution of the resolution has resulted in positive changes in the local socio-economic situation and the lives of local people.

The income of ethnic minority people has been improved and the health and education sector in remote areas has been enhanced at the same time. Strong efforts have been made by locals preserving their culture and national identity.

However, the Politburo also pointed out shortcomings in the implementation. Ethnic people still faced huge difficulties in their daily life. The rate of poor and near poor households remained high and the gap between the rich and the poor was increasing.

The Politburo blamed it on the fact that some policies enacted have failed to give priority to the socio-economic development of people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Due attention has not been paid to promote the potential and advantages of each region.

The lack of coordination between agencies in the implementation of some projects was also a problem.

To boost sustainable development, the Politburo emphasised the need to determine that ethnic tasks are important in the strategy of developing society and the economy of Vietnam.

Local authorities and agencies were urged to complete the legal system relating to ethnic minority people.

They were asked to shift economic structure in line with market demand and mobilise resources to fully tap the potential of the relevant localities to reduce the gap with other regions.

It was necessary to enhance the quality of education in these areas.

Access to healthcare services for ethnic minority people should also be improved. A strategy on malnutrition prevention and combating should be set up as well as the one on enhancing health and stature among ethnic minority youth.

Attention should be paid to strengthen human resource quality with a view to boosting the proportion of officials and employees who are from ethnic minority families in public administrative agencies./.

Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh on November 4 welcomed Facebook’s contributions to digital ecosystem building in Vietnam and its selection of the country as a destination for new-generation Oculus virtual reality (VR) equipment production.

During a reception in Hanoi for Facebook’s Asia-Pacific Vice President of Public Policy Simon Miller and Vice President for Southeast Asia and Emerging Markets Benjamin Joe, Binh also affirmed that Vietnam always provides all possible support for foreign enterprises, including Facebook, to do business in Vietnam.

He also asked Facebook to work closely with Vietnam’s authorities to remove malign information online affecting national security, social safety and order, thus protecting users’ personal information and ensuring cyber security in the country.

Facebook representatives said the social media group is working to support Vietnamese firms, including small- and medium-sized ones, female businesspeople and start-ups.

They added that the group has officially expanded production in Vietnam with new-generation Oculus Rift S VR headsets, and is actively seeking partners to churn out other products in the country.

According to them, the move is an important stride in Facebook’s commitments to investing in Vietnam and part of efforts to diversify production facilities in its global supply chain./.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung affirmed Vietnam’s efforts to link trade development with ensuring social security while meeting a delegation of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade in Hanoi on October 31.

At the event, the two sides discussed issues relevant to the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), especially labour-related ones.

Over the past few days, the Vietnamese National Assembly has spent time on scrutinising the draft revised Labour Code, and the country has also consulted the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and relevant international organisations in the country about this matter, the minister noted.

He cited the international bodies as saying that the draft revised Labour Code has made a great stride in making law on labour. The code will affect around 54 million people in Vietnam, and it has highlighted the right to self-determination and self-negotiation of employees and employers.

The Vietnamese parliament has ratified the ILO’s Convention No. 98 concerning the application of the principles of the right to organise and to bargain collectively. Besides, the spirit of the ILO conventions No. 108 and 87 has also been reflected in the draft revised Labour Code, according to Dung.

Mentioning the EVFTA that is awaiting ratification, the official added Vietnam has been making efforts to associate trade development with social security ensuring for the sake of sustainable human development.

At the meeting, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade Bernd Lange said his delegation’s working trip to Vietnam this time aims to strengthen Vietnam-EU cooperation. It is also meant to prepare for the European Parliament and its member parliaments’ consideration of ratifying the EVFTA and the Investment Protection Agreement between the two sides./.

Bilateral trade between Việt Nam and the European Union must guarantee benefits for the people on both sides, the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) Chairman Bernd Lange said yesterday.

“The trade agreement is not only the issue for the governments of both sides but also for the people on the ground,” Lange told reporters at a press conference in Hà Nội.

Each trade agreement had to be comprehensively approached as it was all about fairness and sustainability, he said.

“We should not think it’s only a free trade agreement, we should speak it’s a free, fair and sustainable trade agreement,” Lange said.

He said both sides must seek common understanding on issues which are not clear at the moment.

Those issues are related to sustainability, labour rights and environmental standards, which are integrated parts of the agreement.

Especially, the two sides must work on labour rights and environmental issues, which are stated in content from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Paris Agreement, he added.

The European Parliament (EP) will discuss the agreement, which was signed in June, on November 6. It is expected to vote for the agreement on January 31, 2020 and the agreement could be approved in February 2020.

Lange also pointed out other issues that have remained obstacles for both Việt Nam and the EU such as tangible areas (cars and car parts) and consumer protection.

Speaking highly of Việt Nam’s decision to ratify ILO’s Convention 98 on organised and collective bargaining right, the official hoped the Government and the National Assembly would soon find the way to say “yes” to two other conventions – the Convention 105 on abolition of forced labour and Convention 87 on freedom of association – at the ongoing National Assembly meeting, paving the way for EU members to vote for the European-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

The press conference was organised by the German political organisation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Institute for Policy Studies and Media Development and the Centre for Integration and Development./.

 Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the UN, has lauded the efforts made by countries, the UN and regional and international organisations inrealising the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

Addressing a UN Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security in New York on October 29, the ambassador held that the political will of UN member countries to meet specific commitments and actions is crucial to successfully realising the agenda.

He also highlighted the significance of support from the UN and international organisations in the field through the sharing of information and experience in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The diplomat underlined the engagement of women in all stages of peace processes, especially in post-dispute recovery.

He also shared Vietnam’s experience in strengthening women’s involvement in national reconstruction and development after the country resumed independence and unification.

Addressing the discussion, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres highlighted the leadership role of women in peace processes, especially in Yemen, Guinea-Bisau and Syria.

However, he pointed to challenges facing women in armed conflicts as well as the low ratio of female leaders in peacekeeping activities, citing only 4.2 percent of members of UN peacekeeping missions are women.

In 2018, although the ratio of women participating in parliaments increased to 24.3 percent on average, the ratio in countries suffering conflicts or post-conflict impacts is only 19 percent.

The UN chief also called on all countries to focus on realising their commitments to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.

At the open discussion, members of the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2492, which calls on countries and the international community to make commitments for implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda as well as priorities to ensure and promote the full, equal and meaningful engagement of women in peace processes./.