Also attending the ceremony were: Politburo member and Minister of National Defense Phan Van Giang; Central Committee members: Le Khanh Hai, Head of the Office of the President ; Nguyen Kim Son, Minister of Education and Training; Hoang Dang Quang, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Central Organization Department; Lam Thi Phuong Thanh, Deputy Head of the Standing Office of the Central Party Committee; and Lieutenant General, Associate Professor, Doctor Tran Viet Khoa, Director of the National Defense Academy.
Speaking at the ceremony, the General Secretary and President affirmed that building and defending the Fatherland are two strategic and continuous tasks of our country's revolution. Defending the Fatherland is an important condition and prerequisite for creating a peaceful and stable environment for rapid and sustainable national development. In recent years, under the leadership of the Party, with the involvement of the entire political system and the whole people and army, our Fatherland has been firmly protected from early on and from afar according to the motto "defending the country before it is in danger". The revolutionary armed forces have been built to be lean, strong, regular, elite, and modern, meeting the increasingly high demands and tasks in the new situation, achieving great results in defending the Fatherland, with the important contribution of the National Defense Academy - the leading reliable institution of the Party and State for training strategic-level cadres, including senior cadres of the people's armed forces.
The Academy has consistently and effectively implemented the Party's guidelines, policies, and viewpoints, as well as the State's laws and regulations, those of the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defense . It has done a good job in strategic planning on military affairs, national defense, security, and army building; actively adjusted the content, programs, and methods of training; strengthened the application of science and technology; focused on research and practical learning; and achieved significant progress in training, with increasingly higher quality, contributing to improving the quality of the Party, State, and armed forces' cadres. The Academy has trained tens of thousands of senior military officers, provided national defense and security knowledge training for thousands of senior officers; trained hundreds of PhDs and Master's degree holders in military science, and hundreds of senior military officers from several countries; and organized numerous international defense official training courses for students from 34 countries worldwide.
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General Secretary and President To Lam attends the Opening Ceremony of the National Defense Academy. |
The National Defense Academy also performs well in advising and proposing to the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense on military and defense issues, contributing to the refinement of theory, raising awareness, renewing thinking, and developing military and defense policies, protecting the Fatherland early and from afar, elevating military science to the level of military art in people's war for national defense; successfully completing the task of training senior officers for the Lao and Cambodian armies, and defense officials of several countries; strengthening academic exchange and research, sharing experiences at international forums, contributing to consolidating trust and enhancing the international standing of the Army and the country.
On behalf of the Party and State leaders, the General Secretary and President warmly congratulated and commended the achievements and efforts of the officers, lecturers, students, staff, and soldiers of the National Defense Academy over the past years.
Developing military art is not only about firmly defending the Fatherland from early on and from afar, preserving the country before it is in danger; more importantly, it requires maximizing opportunities, transforming challenges into opportunities, continuously strengthening national defense capabilities, and increasing Vietnam's contribution to peace and stability in the region and the world.
General Secretary and President To Lam
The General Secretary and President emphasized that the world is undergoing a period of epochal change. Strategic competition among major powers is intensifying; the Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway; and non-traditional security issues are becoming increasingly complex. Hostile, reactionary, and politically opportunistic forces are relentlessly pursuing a "peaceful evolution" strategy with many insidious, sophisticated, and dangerous tactics, promoting "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the country, and demanding the "depoliticization" of the armed forces... The external and internal context places increasingly high demands on the task of defending the Fatherland. Developing military art not only ensures the firm protection of the Fatherland from early on and from afar, preserving the country before it is in danger; but more importantly, it requires maximizing opportunities, transforming challenges into opportunities, continuously strengthening national defense capabilities, and increasing Vietnam's contribution to peace and stability in the region and the world. The demands and tasks of national defense and building a lean, strong, regular, elite, and modern army by 2030 place increasingly significant demands and responsibilities on the Academy's training work.
To meet the requirements and tasks of the new phase, the General Secretary and President requested the Academy to thoroughly understand and effectively implement the Party's policies and viewpoints on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training in conjunction with national defense in the new situation, contributing to improving the quality of cadres of the Party, State, and armed forces in the new era. In particular, the Academy must clearly demonstrate its role as a leading unit in implementing the Party's directives, resolutions, and conclusions on reforming education, training, and military, national defense, and security, focusing on Conclusion No. 91 dated August 12, 2024, of the Politburo of the 13th Party Congress on continuing to implement Resolution No. 29 dated November 4, 2013, of the Central Committee of the 11th Party Congress on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training, and Resolution No. 8 (13th Party Congress) on the National Defense Strategy in the new situation. Continue to vigorously innovate the training programs, content, and methods, as well as school management, in a scientific and modern direction, with the motto "The quality of training at the school is the combat readiness of the unit." The highest goal of training at the Academy is to build a modern officer corps following the principle of "personnel first, weapons second," modern in thinking and working methods.
The ultimate goal of training at the Academy is to build a modern workforce based on the principle of "people first, weapons second," modern in thinking and working methods.
General Secretary and President To Lam
Training content must be closely aligned with the country's defense and security tasks and the development of the military; it must be profound in theory, rich in practice, and updated with new theoretical knowledge and information on modern military science, especially the theory and practice of national defense in the new situation, in accordance with the combat objectives and the practical methods of warfare in the world today. Emphasis should be placed on digital transformation, managing and exploiting big data, developing digital education, smart education, creative education, education adapted to the development of artificial intelligence, and building digital and smart academies.
The General Secretary and President emphasized the need to strive to build the Academy into a leading center for military science and military art research in the region. In the context of new challenges to national defense both domestically and internationally, there is a need to summarize practical experiences, conduct theoretical research, and promptly address new and difficult issues that urgently arise. Lenin affirmed, "Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement," and President Ho Chi Minh said: "A Party without guiding theory is like a person without intelligence, or a ship without a compass."
To achieve the goal of national defense in the new situation, to firmly protect the Fatherland from early on, from afar, and from new spaces, to strengthen national defense potential, and to increase Vietnam's contribution to peace and stability in the region and the world, revolutionary theory, as a result of the Academy's research, plays a particularly important role. In addition, it is necessary to continuously expand military diplomacy and international cooperation to absorb the experience and wisdom of humanity in perfecting the art of warfare in the new era.
Building a team of leading officials, lecturers, and scientists who are shining examples of political acumen, moral character, professional expertise, profound strategic thinking, intelligence, and practical capabilities to meet the demands of their tasks.
General Secretary and President To Lam
The General Secretary and President also emphasized the need to build a strong and exemplary Party Committee at the Academy in terms of politics, ideology, organization, ethics, and personnel; a comprehensively strong, "exemplary and outstanding" Party Committee that meets the requirements of the tasks in the new situation. This includes building a team of cadres, lecturers, and leading scientists who are shining examples of political acumen, moral character, professional expertise, profound strategic thinking, intelligence, and practical capabilities to meet the requirements of the tasks; building an advanced and exemplary cultural and pedagogical environment, resolutely preventing negative manifestations from infiltrating the Academy. Actively participating in the struggle on the ideological and theoretical front, contributing to firmly protecting the Party's ideological foundation, and combating erroneous and hostile viewpoints.
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General Secretary and President To Lam visits the traditional exhibition room of the National Defense Academy. |
Addressing the trainees, the General Secretary and President emphasized the need to clearly understand the increasingly high demands on the thinking, vision, courage, qualities, and capabilities of Party and State officials and armed forces personnel in the new stage of national development; to recognize the honor, pride, and great responsibility of studying, researching, and training at the National Defense Academy; and to make the most of this valuable time to continuously accumulate and develop qualities and capabilities. After graduation, they should creatively apply the knowledge they have learned to their respective positions to make positive contributions to the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.
Affirming that the Party and State will continue to pay attention to leading, directing, and creating favorable conditions for the Academy to improve the quality and effectiveness of training, scientific research, and the cultivation of national defense and security knowledge for senior officials; and investing in building the Academy into a modern national defense and military training and scientific research center on par with countries in the region and around the world, the General Secretary and President expressed confidence that the National Defense Academy will continue to make important contributions to the cause of building and protecting the Fatherland in the new era.
In the 2023-2024 academic year, thoroughly implementing the resolutions and directives of the Party, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defense on education, training, and scientific research, the National Defense Academy proactively developed, adjusted, and supplemented training programs; conducted training rigorously and scientifically; innovated active teaching methods according to the motto "learner-centered," and promoted the implementation of "three essentials": teaching effectively, learning effectively, and testing and evaluating results effectively; linked with "two practicalities": practical content and practical methods. The Academy also conducted research and organized the appraisal, evaluation, and acceptance of 33 projects, including four state-level projects and two Ministry of National Defense-level projects…
In the 2024-2025 academic year, the Academy will make breakthroughs in fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training, developing high-quality human resources, attracting and utilizing talent, especially in training strategic and operational-level officers, and providing national defense and security knowledge training for senior officers under central management; determined to take the lead in implementing the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defense's policy of "The quality of training at the school is the combat readiness of the unit"; and to successfully organize the Emulation Congress for Victory in the 2019-2024 period, creating high motivation for all officers, lecturers, students, staff, and soldiers to strive to excellently fulfill their tasks.
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