A leader with great prestige, vision, perfecting the foreign policy of 'Vietnam's bamboo tree'

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong cordially invited General Secretary and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping to attend a tea party during his State visit to Vietnam on the afternoon of December 12, 2023. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

In particular, the diplomacy imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo" that the General Secretary repeatedly mentioned in his articles and speeches is the most general and complete reflection of the core contents of viewpoints, guiding principles, basic tasks and implementation methods of Vietnamese foreign affairs and diplomacy, on the basis of inheriting and creatively applying Ho Chi Minh's ideology, style and diplomatic art, and the cultural and diplomatic identity of the nation that has existed throughout thousands of years of national construction and defense.

The diplomatic front always plays an important role in the revolutionary cause of our people.

After the 11th Congress, right in his first term as the Party's highest leader, speaking at the 27th Diplomatic Conference (December 2011), General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed: "In the history of thousands of years of building and defending the country of our people, besides the tenacious battles to protect the country's independence and sovereignty, our ancestors always focused on foreign affairs activities, creating the unique traditions and identities of Vietnamese diplomacy full of spirit, rich in humanity and peace: "Using great justice to defeat brutality; Using benevolence to replace violence!". Those are timeless thoughts and philosophies that will forever remain valuable...".

Imbued with that spirit, the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam emphasized: “Those fine traditions and identities have been further nurtured, promoted and shone in the Ho Chi Minh era, forming Vietnamese diplomacy associated with Ho Chi Minh’s diplomatic ideology and style. Along with the political, military, economic, cultural fronts…, the diplomatic front has always played a crucial role in the revolutionary cause of our people, contributing to creating extremely great victories, glorifying the history of the nation…”.

In 2016, at the 29th Diplomatic Conference, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong mentioned for the first time the “Vietnamese bamboo” diplomacy in his speech: “Foreign affairs activities have achieved many glorious achievements, building a unique diplomatic school, imbued with the identity of the “Vietnamese bamboo”: soft but strong, benevolent but indomitable, knowing both softness and hardness, knowing the times and the situation, knowing oneself and knowing others… expressing the soul and spirit of the Vietnamese people”.

The General Secretary emphasized that, in parallel with the task of national development, diplomacy must also shoulder a huge and extremely complicated task of making an important contribution to protecting the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Fatherland, and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment for development. This task has become even more complicated and burdensome due to new developments in the regional and world situation. The General Secretary directed: “The diplomatic sector needs to closely coordinate with national defense and security, proactively deploy activities in this important field. Maintaining a favorable environment for development and protecting independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity is an organically linked relationship, directly affecting each other, so it must be constantly identified as a high priority, a top important condition for the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. This is also the ideology of our ancestors: “Defending the country from afar”, “defending the country when the country is not yet in danger”.

At the National Foreign Affairs Conference to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress (December 2021), the General Secretary outlined the basic content of foreign affairs and diplomacy imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo": We have built a very special and unique foreign affairs and diplomacy of the Ho Chi Minh era, imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo", "firm roots, strong trunk, flexible branches" ("Skinny trunk, fragile leaves, but how can they become a rampart, become a bamboo!"), imbued with the soul, character and spirit of the Vietnamese people. That is: Soft, clever, but very resilient, determined; flexible, creative but very brave, steadfast, courageous in the face of all challenges and difficulties for national independence, for the freedom and happiness of the people. Solidarity, humanity, but resolute, persistent in protecting national interests. Knowing softness, knowing firmness; knowing the times, knowing the situation; know yourself, know others; know how to advance, know how to retreat, "adapt to the situation", "tie tightly with soft rope".

The General Secretary directed the Foreign Affairs sector to continue to synchronously, creatively and effectively implement foreign affairs activities, including Party foreign affairs, State diplomacy and people-to-people diplomacy; foreign affairs of all levels, sectors, localities, agencies, units and business communities. Bring foreign relations into depth, substance and practicality; mobilize and effectively combine external resources with domestic resources to serve the cause of national construction and development and defense of the Fatherland. Constantly innovate and create on the basis of skillfully applying the lesson of "using the unchangeable to respond to all changes", being steadfast in principles and strategies, flexible in methods and tactics...

In December 2023, at the 32nd Diplomatic Conference, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong continued to outline the very special and unique foreign affairs and diplomacy, imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo": In the past nearly 40 years of renovation, our Party has inherited and promoted the national identity, origin and tradition, selectively absorbed the quintessence of the world and progressive ideas of the times, developed on the theoretical foundation of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought, forming a very special and unique foreign affairs and diplomacy, imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo".

This is a highly generalized summary and summary of the core and consistent content of the foreign policy of our Party and State as well as the unique identity of Vietnam's revolutionary diplomacy built and developed on the basis of inheriting and creatively applying Ho Chi Minh's ideology, style, and diplomatic art, and the cultural and diplomatic identity of the nation that has existed throughout thousands of years of national construction and defense.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong also wrote a separate book on “Building and developing a comprehensive, modern Vietnamese foreign policy and diplomacy imbued with the Vietnamese bamboo identity”. The book has a capacity of more than 800 pages, with more than 150 articles, 150 illustrations, and a structure consisting of three parts:

Part 1: The important role and great contribution of foreign affairs in the cause of national construction and defense includes an overview article and 7 speeches by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the Central Executive Committee conferences, diplomatic conferences, and national foreign affairs conferences. In particular, it focuses on clarifying the foreign affairs identity of the "Vietnamese bamboo tree": solid roots, strong trunk, flexible branches, imbued with the soul, character and spirit of the Vietnamese people.

Part 2: Vietnam's foreign relations for independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, including 78 articles, speeches, interviews, letters, telegrams... of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at bilateral and multilateral diplomatic forums.

Part 3: Diplomatic Imprints, including 52 opinions of experts, politicians, diplomats, researchers, and international friends on the role and contribution of the General Secretary in the formation and development of a comprehensive, modern Vietnamese diplomatic school, imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo". Thereby expressing the respect, precious feelings and deep gratitude, from diverse and multi-dimensional perspectives of cadres and people towards the General Secretary.

The articles, thoughts and guiding views of the General Secretary in the book are drawn from rich practice, demonstrating the vision, clear-sighted intelligence, close, decisive, comprehensive and convincing direction of the General Secretary; contributing to clarifying the theoretical thinking of our Party on foreign affairs. The book has raised the level of theory on Vietnamese diplomacy, once again showing the significance of theory and practice going hand in hand, complementing and building on each other; it is a very necessary "handbook" to help Party committees, Party organizations, sectors, levels, cadres and Party members grasp and effectively implement foreign affairs work in the coming time.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's book "Building and developing a comprehensive and modern Vietnamese foreign policy and diplomacy, imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo". Photo: Lam Khanh/VNA

Prestigious leader, visionary, raising the level of Vietnam's foreign relations

Under the leadership of the Party, directly led by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnamese diplomacy with the strong identity of “Vietnamese bamboo” has been strongly promoted. Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, together with the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat, has creatively applied the Party and State’s guidelines, policies, and strategies in directing important foreign affairs issues, properly handling foreign relations, closely and accurately assessing and forecasting the situation, “knowing oneself, knowing others,” “knowing the times, knowing the situation,” to flexibly “knowing how to be firm, knowing how to be gentle,” “knowing how to advance, knowing how to retreat” on the basis of ensuring the highest national interests.

Thanks to that, Vietnam not only maintains "warm inside, peaceful outside" to develop the country in the context of the international situation undergoing great and very complicated changes, but also raises it to a new level with new quality, new strategic content, higher political trust and more substantive and effective cooperation in relations with neighboring countries, leading powers, important partners and traditional friends as well as Vietnam's new prestige and position on both bilateral and multilateral levels, as affirmed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: "Our country has never had such a foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today".

From a country under siege and embargo, Vietnam has now established diplomatic relations with 193 countries, including 7 Comprehensive Strategic Partners, 11 Strategic Partners and 12 Comprehensive Partners. Along with that, the framework of relations with many important partners has been raised to a new level, political trust with many countries has been firmly consolidated, and cooperation has been increasingly expanded, substantive and effective. Vietnam's position, prestige and voice have been prominently affirmed at many important multilateral forums and mechanisms such as: ASEAN, United Nations, Mekong sub-region, APEC, AIPA, IPU, UNESCO... Vietnam has been elected to important UNESCO agencies such as: Vice President of the UNESCO General Assembly, Vice President of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, member of the World Heritage Committee for the 2023-2027 term, the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term...

In addition to continuing to assume international responsibilities, Vietnam has proposed many initiatives and solutions to promote cooperation and make responsible contributions to common world issues such as disease prevention and control, natural disasters, climate change, food security, water security, peacekeeping, etc. Economic diplomacy continues to be promoted. Economic diplomacy activities have made important contributions to promoting economic growth, with import and export in 2023 reaching over 680 billion USD, FDI attraction reaching 36.6 billion USD, Vietnam's GDP surpassing 400 billion USD for the first time with an average per capita of over 4,000 USD, many of the world's leading technology corporations have committed to long-term investment in Vietnam, etc.

In the article “General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong – An exceptionally outstanding leader with many imprints in elevating Vietnam’s foreign relations”, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son affirmed that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong always leaves international partners and friends with a good impression of a dynamically developing Vietnam, rich in culture, friendly, upholding justice, respecting international law, behaving reasonably and emotionally, being a loyal friend, a trustworthy partner, an active and responsible member of the international community; of the image of a leader with great prestige, far-sighted vision, sharp thinking, exemplary behavior, sophistication, sincerity, closeness and simplicity.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son emphasized that the staff in the Foreign Affairs sector will always remember and be imbued with the advice of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, "A good diplomat and foreign affairs activist must first of all be a good politician, always taking the interests of the nation, the regime as the guiding principle in action", "always remember that behind you is the Party, the country, the people". Under the light of the Party's foreign policy and Ho Chi Minh's diplomatic ideology, inheriting and promoting the country's foreign affairs achievements, following the example of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the entire Foreign Affairs sector will make every effort to strongly promote the pioneering role of foreign affairs, strive and train to continue to make worthy contributions to the country's innovation, development and protection of the Fatherland.