Vietnam always pursues self-reliance policy

PANO – Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong paid an official visit to the United States of America from July 6^th to 10^th, at the invitation of the Administration of US President Barack Obama. The visit was to boost the comprehensive partnership between the two nations. Generally, the press and media in Vietnam and the USA and across the world highly valued the visit and cheered the development in relations between the two nations.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (2nd from left) receiving former US President Bill Clinton. Photo: VNA

However, before and during the historic visit, several overseas-based online newspapers expressed negative views on Vietnam, and some websites and blogs even tried to direct the public opinion toward their bad perspectives. They also distorted information, fabricated stories, aiming to speak ill of Vietnamese leaders and misrepresent the Party’s policies.

Everyone knows that Vietnam practices freedom of information, press and expression. In such a circumstance, websites and blogs are free to post anything but they should keep in mind the first and foremost principle that, in order to gain credibility and trust from the public, they must speak the truth, write only true information and give the first and foremost priority to serving the readers without any bad intention. Sadly, the authors of articles on some websites and blogs have bypassed this principle. One could see that they lacked the professional ethics of the journalist and had no respect for the reader when providing false information and subjective unfriendly views on the Vietnamese Party General Secretary’s visit to the USA.

In a modern open world, Vietnam pursues its open-door policy. Over the past years, the country has established and expanded its relationship with many nations across the world on the basis of mutual respect of national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other, and actively participated in international organizations for maintaining international peace, stability and prosperity. Nevertheless, Vietnam understands that it should mainly rely on itself other than any other countries to protect its national independence, freedom and territorial integrity. Indeed, Vietnam has always preserved its unchanged principle of self-reliance in both multilateral and bilateral relations.

The history of the modern country of Vietnam shows that the Vietnam Communist Party has been consistent with the principle. In the resistance war against French colonists, on December 18, 1946, President Ho Chi Minh urgently summoned an extensive meeting of the Standing Commission of the Party Central Committee in Van Phuc village, Ha Dong, Hanoi when clearly determining the French scheme of reinvading the country. At the meeting, the Party made a call for the entire nation to wage a resistance war against the French invaders. The Party also crafted a basic guideline, stating: the resistance war is conducted nationwide, comprehensively and mainly based on the internal strength of the nation. Facts from the nine-year war show that the whole Party, people and army always followed the self-reliance guideline, and it must be said that the landslide victory of Dien Bien Phu, completely defeating the French colonialism in Vietnam and regaining national independence, resulted from the proper leadership of the Party in mobilizing national strength for the war.

In the anti-American war, the Party continued to pursue the self-reliance policy. At the 15^th Meeting of the Party Central Committee, the Party defined the path to national liberation: under the leadership of the Party, uniting the nation and mobilizing the national strength for the war. Thanks to the self-reliance policy, Vietnamese people under the leadership of the Party sought to create comprehensive massive strength to win each battle and achieve the final victory over the enemy who was much more powerful in both economic and military terms.

In the past wars, the Vietnamese people also received valuable support from international friends. Although the Vietnamese people always appreciate and will never forget that support, the Vietnamese people played the main and decisive role in defeating the enemies, gaining national independence, liberating the country and reunifying the nation. In other words, all the victories and achievements stem from the Party’s consistent policy of self-reliance. 

In peacetime, Vietnam, when it focuses on executing the two main strategies: building the country (mainly in terms of socio-economic development) and firmly protecting the Fatherland, still relies on the national strength, albeit whilst highly valuing international support and cooperation.

All the abovementioned demonstrates that the Vietnamese Party, State and people will never depend on a foreign force to protect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Only short-sighted critics or political opportunists would think that the nation should rely on a major power to protect and develop the country. This thinking is absolutely wrong because each nation should give the first and foremost priority to its national interests rather than another nation’s. Moreover, Vietnam’s history of national defence and construction shows that any past feudal dynasty that relied on foreign forces finally failed to preserve national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The visit of Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the USA, which aimed to promote bilateral relations and cooperation between Vietnam and the USA, has just successfully concluded. However, it should be seen as a diplomatic activity. Although it was the first time the Vietnamese Party Chief had visited the USA, it was similar to other visits made by other Vietnamese leaders. Since 1986 when Vietnam started the open-door policy, it has strengthened its relationship with traditional friends, expanded relations with other nations and actively participated in international organizations. At present, Vietnam pursues the Party’s guideline in foreign relations: Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner of all countries, and a responsible member of the international community; it promotes relations with other countries on the basis of equality, mutual respect and nonintervention in internal affairs of each other. It is not hard to understand that the visit by the Vietnamese General Secretary to the USA has certainly followed the principle. So those who tried to misrepresent the Party’s policy and the General Secretary’s visit to the USA are either the “frog at the bottom of the well” or evil-minded people. If they continue to do so, who else will read and trust their hostile websites and blogs?

Written by Tran Thon

Translated by Thu Nguyen

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