Authorized by the Prime Minister, General Lich presented a proposal for the draft law on Border Guard to the NA.
Vietnam has a long borderline with 44 cities and provinces sharing the borderline with neighboring countries. According to General Lich, at present, peace, friendship, cooperation and development are common trends. However, the political-security situations in the region and world are developing complicatedly and unpredictably. These include territorial disputes, shortages of natural resources, ethnic and religious conflicts, religion, and recession, and more.
General Lich warned that hostile forces have intensified their acts of sabotage while complex developments have been seen in legal violations, drug-related crimes, cross-border crimes, and free migration. Furthermore, non-traditional security challenges, such as climate change, natural disasters, and environmental pollution are on the rise.
The Defense Minister stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected most countries and territories worldwide and the border work includes the containment of the disease from spreading into Vietnam via the borderline. Therefore, the COVID-19 prevention and control work in border areas needs close coordination between domestic functional agencies and forces and the border protection forces of countries with the shared borderline with Vietnam.
This situation requires renovation, development, and new thinking on border activities to safeguard the country’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
General Lich emphasized that the national border is sacred and inviolable and that building, managing, and protecting the national border is a responsibility of departments and sectors at all levels and of the entire political system. Thus, to firmly defend national territorial sovereignty and border security, it is necessary to have a comprehensive legal document system.
The draft law, consisting of seven chapters with 33 articles, covers such issues as border protection tasks, task performing forces, international cooperation in border protection, and the border guard force. It also highlights the responsibility of agencies, organizations, and individuals in performing border protection tasks.
Delivering a verification report on the draft law, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for National Defense and Security Vo Trong Viet agreed that it is necessary to promulgate the Law on Border Guard to institutionalize the Party’s guidelines and policies on the national border, including the Politburo’s Resolution No 33 on National Border Protection Strategy, and the provisions of the Constitution on the national protection missions.
Viet said that it needs to review, evaluate and make proposals, and introduce amendments and supplements to the Law on National Border and other related laws while fully and concretely stipulating new policies and contents of the Law on Border Guard in line with the Party’s viewpoints and reality.
Viet suggested evaluating the observance of international treaties to which Vietnam is a member and providing more information about other countries’ laws and experience in national border management and protection.
Regarding the name of this draft law, Viet stressed that all border-related matters need to be stipulated comprehensively in the direction that the border work is part of the national sovereignty and security protection and national defense mission.
The Law on Border Guard must be in harmony with various laws, including the law on national border, thus it is necessary to carefully review and fully evaluate policies, provisions of laws on building, managing and protecting the national border and border areas to avoid overlap and conflict between laws and to ensure feasibility of the law.
Translated by Mai Huong