Strong development steps
It can be said that the 2016-2021 period continued seeing strong development steps in international integration and defense diplomacy task performance. These contributed to developing national socio-economy, firmly protecting independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Fatherland, and at the same time consolidating and enhancing the position and prestige of Vietnam and the Vietnam People's Army in the international arena.
In the period, the international integration and defense diplomacy work was embraced and carried out in line with guidelines and policies identified in the Resolutions of the 12th and 13th Party Congresses, the Resolution of the 8th session of the 11th Party Central Committee on the Fatherland protection strategy in the new situation, the Resolutions of the 10th and 11th Military Party Congresses, Resolution No.22 of the Politburo (11th tenure) on international integration, and Resolution No.806 of the Central Military Commission on international integration and defense diplomacy until 2020 and subsequent years.
Also during this time, the defense cooperation between Vietnam and other countries witnessed more solid steps, reflected in various substantive and effective cooperation fields and mechanisms such as exchange of military delegations, cooperation between arms and services, defense industry, U.N. peacekeeping operations, defense policy dialogues, border defense friendship exchanges, friendly border exchanges, and twinning activities between border stations, residential areas on both sides of borderlines, among others.
Additionally, the Vietnam People's Army enhanced exchanges and cooperation with the militaries of other countries in many other fields through participation in the International Army Games, and ASEAN military sports festivals. Vietnamese military also promoted cooperation with other foreign militaries in war legacy relief, exchange of expertise, scientific research, and training, to name but a few.
Especially, with high determination and great efforts, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense advocated not letting the COVID-19 pandemic affect foreign relations and defense ties with other countries as well as the implementation of plans, military and defense activities when Vietnam assumed the ASEAN Chair in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council for the 2020-2021 period. In particular, Vietnam successfully organized ASEAN military and defense meetings in an effective, substantive and absolutely safe manner.
The signing of the agreement between the Government of Vietnam and the European Union (E.U.) on the establishment of a framework for Vietnam's participation in the E.U.'s crisis management activities (FPA) on the occasion of the official visit to E.U. of the Vietnamese Minister of National Defense on October 17, 2019 is one of the typical examples for the strong development of the international integration and defense diplomacy work in recent years.
This agreement not only marked an important development step in the defense relations between Vietnam and the E.U., but also opened the way for Vietnam to participate in humanitarian crisis management activities on the basis of the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter and international laws. Within the FPA framework, the E.U. will effectively support Vietnam to raise its engagement capacity in peacekeeping operations by sending its peacekeeping experts to Vietnam to advise and provide technical assistance on personnel training.
Turning difficulties and challenges into opportunities
To achieve the aforementioned outstanding outcomes, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense have promptly directed relevant agencies to proactively adjust defense diplomacy plans towards flexible implementation methods, especially in the context of the complicated developments of COVID-19 affecting all aspects, including cooperation and exchanges on international integration and defense diplomacy.
In order to adapt to the new situation, functional agencies under the Ministry of National Defense have promptly adjusted plans in the direction of changing the form of organizing several activities from in person to phone talks, virtual dialogues, and online consultation. Thanks to the careful preparation, these activities have been implemented effectively, substantively, and safely, making contribution to achieving the important goal of not letting COVID-19 affect the maintenance of defense cooperation between Vietnam and other countries and international organizations in key areas including overcoming war legacy, search and rescue, military medicine, training, and strategy studies.
Apart from implementing scheduled foreign relations plans, the Vietnam People's Army has proactively proposed new cooperation contents suitable to the real situations, such as, sharing experiences in disease prevention and control, vaccine research and production, and providing medical supplies.
Attentively, even when COVID-19 was not considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), Vietnam proposed and consulted with ASEAN member countries, resulting in ASEAN’s issuance of a joint statement on defense cooperation against disease outbreaks at the ADMM Retreat in Hanoi in February 2020. This laid an important basis for regional militaries to propose and implement many cooperation initiatives, especially in COVID-19 prevention and control.
Moreover, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense have paid due attention to directing the enhancement of defense relations with foreign countries and organizations to promote vaccine support and aid to Vietnam, helping the military fulfill its task as one of the key forces in COVID-19 prevention and control.
The above-mentioned achievements are a strong basis for the affirmation that the defense diplomacy has continued to be an important pillar of the Party and State diplomacy, making an important contribution to building trust between Vietnam and other countries, protecting independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland, and upholding a peaceful and stable environment for national development even in hard and challenging times.
Translated by Mai Huong