Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: 'National and ethnic interests are paramount'

On the morning of December 15, in Hanoi, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and delivered a speech at the 31st Diplomatic Conference with the theme "Vietnamese diplomacy is pioneering, comprehensive, modern, proactive, adaptive, and successfully implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress".

Also attending the Conference were: Comrade Pham Binh Minh, Politburo member, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister of the Government; Comrade Nguyen Manh Cam, former Politburo member, former Deputy Prime Minister, former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Comrade Pham Gia Khiem, former Politburo member, former Deputy Prime Minister, former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Social Committee Nguyen Thuy Anh; Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan; Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi; former leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; leaders of central departments, ministries, branches and organizations; leaders of 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

This is a very important and meaningful event to disseminate the spirit and content of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the conclusions and directions of the Party and State leaders at the National Foreign Affairs Conference to the entire diplomatic sector as well as to foreign affairs and foreign affairs agencies in localities.

Speaking at the Conference, leaders of ministries, branches, localities, ambassadors, and diplomatic officers delivered speeches, focusing on assessing the major trends of the world situation and the world economy, opportunities and challenges for Vietnam to successfully implement socio-economic development goals in the coming period; proposing goals, guiding viewpoints, orientations and new directions to effectively implement diplomacy for development, promoting the pioneering role of foreign affairs to practically serve the country's development goals; proposing specific measures to implement the motto of economic diplomacy for development "taking people, localities, and enterprises as the center of service".

In his speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the theme and significance of the 31st Diplomatic Conference, which took place right after the National Foreign Affairs Conference to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress. At this Conference, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong gave a very comprehensive and profound speech, summarizing both theory and practice on the achievements and lessons of the diplomatic sector during the 35-year renovation period; thoroughly grasping and concretizing the foreign policy of the 13th National Congress into major orientations for the entire political system to focus on implementing in the coming time. The Prime Minister requested that the speech and instructions of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong be seriously and deeply grasped.

Spending a lot of time analyzing the situation in 2020 and 2021, the Prime Minister emphasized some differences compared to previous years. That is, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on the whole world and Vietnam. Vietnam has assumed roles in international organizations such as the President of the United Nations Security Council and the Chairmanship of ASEAN. We have successfully organized the 13th National Party Congress and Party Congresses at all levels, the election of the National Assembly and People's Councils at all levels, and the consolidation of leadership positions in State agencies.

In that context, the diplomatic sector has grasped the situation, done a good job of strategic forecasting, advised the Party and State leaders on domestic and foreign affairs, contributed to the excellent completion of the tasks that Vietnam undertakes in international organizations, made international friends and partners love and trust Vietnam more, and Vietnam's international reputation has been increasingly enhanced. Economic diplomacy has been effectively implemented, contributing to attracting resources from outside. The force of cadres doing diplomatic work has matured in all aspects.

In particular, the Prime Minister emphasized that the diplomatic sector has made important contributions to the effective implementation of medical diplomacy and vaccine diplomacy, both contributing responsibly to the common international efforts and gaining timely and effective international support in vaccines, medical equipment and treatment drugs for epidemic prevention and control in recent times. From a country with relatively slow access to vaccines, Vietnam has become one of the countries with a high vaccination rate and confidently changed its status to safe and flexible adaptation, effective control of the epidemic, and socio-economic recovery and development.

These results were achieved thanks to the sector's close adherence to, concretization, and serious implementation of the Party and State's guidelines, policies, and laws to perform assigned functions, tasks, and powers; solidarity, unity, and promotion of the diplomatic sector's traditions, flexible adaptation to new conditions; and support from all levels, sectors, localities, and international friends.

In addition, the Prime Minister expressed concerns and worries about some aspects of the diplomatic sector's activities, such as strategic research, building a complete and comprehensive database; economic diplomacy serving sustainable development, shifting from extensive to intensive development requires more efforts; the potential for economic cooperation in some strategic areas has not been fully exploited; the number of staff working in international organizations is still modest; facilities and working conditions are still limited; the material life of diplomatic staff has not been improved much... The Prime Minister also expressed sympathy with the team of people working in diplomacy about the difficulties and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as some staff at embassies being infected with COVID-19...

Regarding the tasks in 2022 and 2023, the Prime Minister requested to closely follow, forecast, and correctly assess the domestic and international situation, the results achieved and not achieved in the past time to shape foreign affairs work.

The Prime Minister noted a number of issues such as strategic competition, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, the Indian Ocean, and the East Sea; the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; the fourth industrial revolution; challenges such as climate change, rising sea levels, population aging, depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution, etc. These are global issues, so we need a global mindset, approach, and solutions that are inclusive, comprehensive, and appropriate to the new development context and requirements.

Domestically, we continue to carry out very important tasks of building socialist democracy, a socialist rule-of-law state, and a socialist-oriented market economy; with the goal that by 2030, our country will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income, and by 2045, strive to become a developed country with high income.

In the immediate future, the whole country continues to focus on implementing the goals and tasks set out by the 13th National Party Congress; continuing the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic effectively and restoring and developing the economy and society; maintaining political stability, protecting independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; improving the material and spiritual life of the people; making the people increasingly prosperous and happy.

After more than 2 months of implementing Resolution 128 of the Government on temporary regulations on safe and flexible adaptation and effective control of the epidemic, the socio-economic situation has clearly improved. However, there are still many, very large difficulties and challenges.

In that context, the Prime Minister stated that in the spirit of “being unchanging, responding to all changes”, it is necessary to ensure at the highest level the national and ethnic interests, serving the national and ethnic interests is paramount, firmly protecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and legitimate rights and interests of Vietnam; steadfastly implementing the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization, diversification, being a good friend, a reliable partner, and an active and responsible member of the international community. The Prime Minister also emphasized the diplomatic motto of “affection, sincerity, trust, equality, respect, effectiveness, and mutual development”.

The Prime Minister pointed out a number of contents and tasks in implementing the three pillars of diplomacy including political diplomacy, economic diplomacy, and cultural diplomacy.

Regarding political diplomacy, we will firmly implement an independent, self-reliant, multilateral and diversified foreign policy; be a good friend, a reliable partner and an active and responsible member of the international community, so that international friends and partners increasingly trust and love Vietnam, better understand and support Vietnam's path to socialism, and resolve issues in the spirit of "harmonious interests and shared risks". "The spirit is that we do not "choose sides" but choose the great truth of the times: peace, friendship, cooperation and development", the Prime Minister emphasized.

Economic diplomacy activities must actively contribute to building and perfecting institutions, training human resources, attracting and developing green technology, green finance, improving national governance capacity; promoting effective FTAs, contributing to improving the investment environment, promoting participation in global value chains, promoting the innovative startup ecosystem; actively participating in the fight against Covid-19, restoring and developing the socio-economy, shifting from breadth to depth, and creative transformation; responding to global challenges as pointed out.

Cultural diplomacy needs to actively implement the cultural goals and tasks identified by the 13th National Party Congress and the National Cultural Conference in the spirit of developing culture on par with economics, politics, and society, promoting the world's recognition of Vietnam's heritage, developing culture associated with developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector...

Regarding the issue of building a diplomatic force, the Prime Minister emphasized that this team must be "politically sensitive, economically astute, and scientifically and technologically profound"; promote the building of a comprehensive, modern, peaceful, united, humane, trustworthy, loyal, flexible, creative, yet resilient and resolute diplomacy; enhance the capacity and fighting strength of Party organizations and Party members in the diplomatic sector...

The Prime Minister also requested to modernize the facilities of the diplomatic sector, with ministries and sectors working together towards this goal; improving the material and spiritual life of diplomatic staff...