Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh: Father "relieves siege", son "integrates"

If Mr. Nguyen Co Thach is considered the "architect" of the "break-out" diplomacy period, Mr. Pham Binh Minh (Mr. Thach's son) is considered the symbol of Vietnamese diplomacy in the integration period.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh had a phone call with the Chinese side.

Professional diplomat

At the 12th Party Congress, Mr. Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was elected to the Politburo. Thus, he has assumed the important responsibility (both for the Party and the State) that his father, Nguyen Co Thach, had held 33 years ago.

In Vietnamese politics, there are interesting coincidences of such “couples”. Doan Trong Truyen (term 1984-1987) and Doan Manh Giao (1999-2007) were both Ministers and Heads of the Government Office.

Mr. Nguyen Co Thach received Mr. IA Rogachoc - Deputy Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union on November 27, 1988

Although Doan Trong Truyen and Doan Manh Giao, father and son, both hold the positions of Minister and Head of the Government Office, their paths are completely different. Before becoming Minister and Head of the Government Office, Mr. Doan Trong Truyen was the Director of the Ministry of Economy, Principal of the School of Finance and Economics (now the National Economics University), Deputy Head of the Central Party Finance and Commerce Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly's Planning and Budget Committee, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, and Chairman of the State Pricing Committee.

Mr. Doan Manh Giao was a teacher and Deputy Head of the Weapons Department, Military Technical Academy. He then moved to work at the Government Office.

Meanwhile, father and son Nguyen Co Thach and Pham Binh Minh are both professional diplomats.

After graduating from the Academy of International Relations (now the Diplomatic Academy), Mr. Pham Binh Minh was assigned to the Department of Training, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His professional diplomatic career began here.

He grew up from Attaché of the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK; trainee officer at the department level; Deputy Director of the Department of International Organizations; Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations; Consul, Deputy Ambassador of Vietnam to the United States; Acting Director and then Director of the Department of International Organizations; Head of the human rights dialogue delegation with other countries; Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Nguyen Co Thach (right) welcomed French Foreign Minister Rolang Duyma

At the 10th National Congress of the Party, he was elected as an alternate member of the Party Central Committee. From August 2007 to January 2009, he was Deputy Minister, then Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He then successively held the important positions of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was elected to the Politburo at the First Conference of the 12th Party Central Committee. Mr. Pham Binh Minh studied for a Master's degree in Law and Diplomacy at Fletcher Tufts University, USA.

"Children and grandchildren follow the same line"

Pham Binh Minh is the youngest son of Mr. Nguyen Co Thach (aka Pham Van Cuong) and Mrs. Phan Thi Phuc. They have 4 children. Mr. Nguyen Co Thach is a very strict father. He always requires his children to train themselves and strive to become adults.

Mr. Pham Tuan Phan, the eldest son of Mr. Thach and Mrs. Phuc, once said: “In 1971-1972, there was a general mobilization order. I was called to join the army when I was in 10th grade, at the age of 17. Although I knew I would have to go to the "fiery" battlefield of Quang Tri, my father did not intervene. He believed that no matter what position he held, we - his children - had the duty to serve the country like everyone else.

After April 30, 1975, when I was studying in the Soviet Union, my father called me once and asked: “Do you want to transfer to study Diplomacy?”. I always admired my father and the work he did. I also wanted to continue the work he pursued. But at that time, I was a military man sent to study, thinking that changing my major could damage my father’s reputation, in the end I still decided to stay at the University, even though I understood my father always wanted a son to continue his career. Two years later, my younger brother, Pham Binh Minh, fulfilled his wish.”

Mr. Pham Binh Minh's extended family.

Mrs. Phan Thi Phuc said: "In 1977, when he learned that our youngest son passed the entrance exam to Hanoi University of Science and Technology with a very high score, Mr. Thach confided to his son: "Dad is very passionate about diplomacy and sincerely hopes that one of the four of us will succeed him."

So Pham Binh Minh became a student at the Academy of International Relations. This story was also recalled by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh himself. He said: “I am always grateful to my father. His wishes have motivated me to strive, cultivate, and train to do a meaningful job.”

Just like with his eldest son, in addition to sharing his experiences with his son, Mr. Nguyen Co Thach always encouraged Pham Binh Minh to be independent. Mrs. Phuc said:

“When Minh graduated, my family's first advice to him was, 'If the agency assigns you a difficult or complicated job, you should not refuse. Difficult tasks will help people mature faster.' The first job my son received when he became an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was to work in the human rights division.”

According to Mrs. Phuc, during his lifetime, although Mr. Nguyen Co Thach's work was sometimes very stressful, he always tried to spend all his free time to teach his son the professional experiences he had, from issues related to diplomacy, negotiation experience, to the art of communication. "My husband always told his son: "In diplomacy, if you can't say something, don't say it, if you can say it, say it directly, say it to the end" - Mrs. Phuc recalled.

It would be incorrect to say that Mr. Pham Binh Minh was only influenced by his father, but in fact, it was his mother who “molded” his personality. Let’s listen to Mrs. Phuc tell the story:

My husband often had to go on business trips, sometimes for a whole year, so I was almost entirely responsible for taking care of and educating the children when they were young. I still taught my children to study to serve the country, not just for myself. I asked them to read “How the Steel Was Tempered” by the Russian writer Oxtropxki, and I often told them about the examples of national heroes.

Not only Mr. Minh. Mr. Thach was also greatly influenced by her. Mrs. Phuc used to accompany Mr. Thach on trips around the world, helping him synthesize and analyze remarkable information, which he could not always grasp because of his busy work. According to Mr. Phan Doan Nam, Mr. Thach's assistant for almost his entire life, in the last year of his life, Mr. Nguyen Co Thach once affectionately held his wife's hand and said: "Half of my career is yours."

(To be continued)

According to viettimes