Former senior diplomats, scholars and history researchers examined the significance of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords 35 years ago and lessons drawn from the event, at a workshop in Hanoi on January 25.

Among the delegates was Nguyen Thi Binh, former State Vice President and former Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, who signed the agreement.

Addressing the workshop, Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh noted that 35 years ago on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam was signed, putting an end to the longest and toughest negotiations and marking the most glorious victory in the history of the Vietnamese diplomacy.

He said the 1973 Paris conference was a long but glorious battle of wits for the the Vietnamese diplomats who, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, succeeded in creating a change in Vietnam’s military tactics of both “fighting” and “negotiating” at the same time, leading to the complete victory of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign and national reunification in 1975.

Deputy FM Minh said that the agreement was a combined victory of the fight on the military, political and diplomatic fronts, forcing the US to stop bombing the north and turning the tide on the battlefield helping Vietnam to defeat the Saigon puppet regime later.

All the presentations at the workshop highlighted the Party’s leadership, the worldwide support and the Ho Chi Minh wisdom during the negotiation process.

Mr Minh affirmed that the Paris Peace Accords marked the enormous growth of Vietnamese diplomacy during the Ho Chi Minh Era and offered valuable lessons. He said that they are the lessons about maintaining independence and self-reliance in tackling diplomatic affairs, creating and seizing the opportunity, and providing mutual supporting during the military and diplomatic struggles. But above all, he said, it was the lesson about the clear-sighted and firm leadership of the Party and the creative application of Ho Chi Minh Thought on diplomacy.

According to Dr Duong Van Quang, Director of the Institute for International Relations, the passage of time will increase the values of these lessons. They will remain unchanged in the minds of Vietnamese diplomats who persist in a foreign policy of diversifying and multilateralising external relations in the current period of international integration.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Binh, Chief negotiator of the then Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, attributed the success of the Paris Conference to the combination of State-to-State diplomacy and people-to-people diplomacy.

“People-to-people diplomacy was considered a sharp tool for us to make full use of the worldwide support for our struggle,” said Mrs Binh. “It influenced the American public to force its government to reconsider its war policy against Vietnam.”

Source: VOV