Mr. Pham Quang Vinh and the "behind-the-scenes" stories of the Ambassador profession

(Dan Tri) - What duties does a Vietnamese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary abroad have to perform and what pressure does he face? Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Quang Vinh "revealed" to Dan Tri newspaper.

Veteran diplomat Pham Quang Vinh is known for his activities related to the ASEAN region. But an important period in his career was as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to the United States (from November 2014 to June 2018). Dan Tri newspaper had a conversation with Mr. Pham Quang Vinh about the "Ambassadorial profession".

How did you enter the diplomatic profession? - This was probably a stroke of luck. My family tradition does not have anyone who is a "diplomat". My father was an officer in the irrigation sector, and my mother worked in the field of meteorology. In 1975, I graduated from high school and enrolled in the University of Technology. Perhaps I would have become an engineer, if at that time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not had a policy of selecting students from a number of universities to train personnel for foreign affairs work, serving the new development stage of the country.

When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came to the schools to recruit, I was lucky to be among the students called. At that time, the curriculum and learning conditions were limited. However, entering the Diplomatic Academy, we began to approach the outside world and improve our foreign language skills. After graduating, I returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, starting to work as a specialist at the Department of General Affairs (now the Department of International Organizations) since 1980. He held the important position of Ambassador of Vietnam to the United States in July 2014, and was awarded the rank of Ambassador of the second level - the highest diplomatic rank of the Vietnamese State. What conditions does a diplomat need to be awarded the rank of Ambassador? - Here we are talking about diplomatic rank and rank in the sense of the title given by the State to people working in the diplomatic field to perform foreign affairs tasks, both when in the country or abroad. Along with that, there is also the appointment of diplomatic positions and ranks (with a term) for officials on assignment at Vietnamese representative agencies abroad (usually three years). Ambassador is the highest diplomatic rank. The system of diplomatic ranks and ranks from bottom to top includes Attaché, Third Secretary, Second Secretary, First Secretary, Counselor, Minister Counselor and Minister.

An official who is awarded the title of Ambassador must meet the standards of qualities and abilities; have a certain number of years of work to accumulate foreign affairs experience (working in the sector for 10 years or more); have been trained in knowledge, expertise, and foreign affairs skills; be fluent in at least one foreign language... To be awarded the title of Ambassador, regardless of whether from the diplomatic sector or elsewhere, one must meet similar requirements. The process of voting and approving diplomatic ranks and levels has certain principles to ensure "the right person, the right job". Although there are no schools to train Ambassadors, the sector regularly organizes knowledge and skills training courses for officials before they begin their term abroad. When I was young, I read stories about Vietnamese ambassadors who were both talented in diplomacy and very courageous. Surely the training of today's Ambassadors cannot lack historical lessons? - Cultural traditions and lessons left by our ancestors as ambassadors such as national pride, bravery and indomitability are taught and learned by anyone working in diplomacy. Along with that, we must see that today's world has moved very differently from a few hundred years ago. The interests of countries are intertwined and closely linked in the globalization trend. Each location where diplomats work has a certain position in Vietnam's economic development. For example, in the US, it is certain that the market issue, the issue of attracting investment, especially high-tech investment, semiconductors, chips, etc., are very important. For many years, the US has been Vietnam's largest export market. 2023 is the third consecutive year that the import-export turnover between the two countries has reached 100 billion USD or more; in 2023 alone, Vietnam's exports to the US reached 97 billion USD. The US is also one of the major investors in Vietnam with more than 1,300 valid projects, with a total registered capital of nearly 12 billion USD. Obviously, in the work of the Ambassador in particular and the Vietnamese representative agency in the United States in general, on the one hand, it is necessary to promote cultural traditions, promote cultural exchanges and act as a bridge for the two sides to increasingly understand each other, on the other hand, it is necessary to pay attention to promoting synchronous cooperation areas, in which the key task is economic cooperation. The lessons our ancestors left us, including the story of the diplomatic mission, are recorded in history books through stories. Nowadays, in the era of digital transformation and social networks, the speed of information is very fast, it can be in real time, as soon as it happens, the whole world knows, so diplomats are under great pressure in terms of communication.

On the one hand, an Ambassador must know how to exploit the advantages of the media, but on the other hand, he must also pay close attention to avoid incidents (sometimes just a slip of the tongue) that lead to a media crisis, affecting the assigned tasks. What specific responsibilities will a person appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary - specifically you as the Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States - have? - Ambassadors have two sets of responsibilities and with them come different and related tasks. One is as a national representative, when going to another country, you must promote Vietnam's relations with that country, promote the interests, position and prestige of Vietnam. Two is as the head and manager of the Vietnamese representative agency in the host country, you must manage the agency to best serve the foreign affairs mission, and perform well in all aspects of the work. An official at the Ambassador level, no matter which country he goes to, must carry out the same responsibilities. However, for some large and important countries to Vietnam, such as China, the US, Russia, Japan, etc., the person appointed as Ambassador must meet higher requirements, usually being an official equivalent to Deputy Minister or higher.

On April 14, 2017, in Washington DC, Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Pham Quang Vinh, his wife and representatives of the Embassy's staff visited Ambassador Mai Sayvongs, his wife and the staff of the Lao Embassy on the occasion of the traditional New Year Bun Pi May 2560 (according to the Buddhist calendar) of the Lao people (Photo: NVCC).

The greatest responsibility of an Ambassador is to act as a bridge between Vietnam and the host country, not only a bridge with the government but also a bridge for people-to-people exchanges, with scholars, the media, and to continuously enhance understanding between the two sides... Each country has different characteristics. If you go to a country in the Middle East, it will certainly be different from going to the US, and it will also be different from going to Europe. In a world of instability and fierce competition between major countries today, the US - the world's leading economic center, becomes even more important. Every movement in the center can send out signals that have a multi-dimensional impact on the world, and vice versa, notable developments around the world are also updated very quickly in the center. Therefore, a diplomat in the center also has the responsibility to act as the "eyes and ears" for his country, both advising on exploiting opportunities and warning of early risks. There are also other responsibilities, including community work, especially in the US where there is a large Vietnamese community.

In 2014, he began his "ambassadorial" mission to the United States. But before that, he had worked for two terms at the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations (New York), so the US was certainly not unfamiliar to him. What was his priority when he came to Washington, DC? - During my two terms at the Permanent Mission, I first served as an Attaché from January 1987 to January 1990, and then held the position of Minister Counselor - Deputy Permanent Representative of the Mission, from July 1996 to August 1999. The context of the two terms above and the period when I was appointed as Ambassador were very different. In the 1980s, Vietnam - US relations were still very difficult. The US was besieging and embargoing Vietnam. Diplomats at the mission were limited in space, only allowed to travel within 25 miles (about 40 km) of Manhattan Island where the United Nations headquarters was located and not allowed to go outside. By the time I took up the position of Vietnamese Ambassador to the US at the end of 2014, in 2013 the two countries had established a comprehensive partnership.

I still remember that in 2014, the total import-export turnover between the two countries was 36 billion USD, compared to the period when diplomatic relations were just established, which was less than half a billion USD, it had increased more than 70 times. So the question for me when I started my term as Ambassador was "I take over such a facility, what should I do to contribute to the development of the relationship between the two countries?". Fortunately, after nearly 4 years as Ambassador to the US, trade between the two countries has reached nearly 70 billion USD. That shows that the momentum of development of the relationship between the two countries is very strong, and there is still a lot of room for cooperation. There is one memory that I will always remember. That was in 1994, I accompanied Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam to the United Nations General Assembly. During that trip, the Vietnamese delegation went to Washington, DC to meet some American friends, and Minister Nguyen Manh Cam wanted to stop by the place that used to be the home of the Vietnamese Ambassador under the previous administration. At that time, because the two countries had not yet established official relations, when the Vietnamese delegation arrived, they opened the door for them to see and they still kept the key. Exactly 20 years later, when I began my term as Ambassador in the US, the key to that house was no longer at the US State Department but belonged to the Vietnamese Embassy. Now everyone still calls this house "Vietnam House", which is both the Ambassador's private residence and the place to organize important foreign affairs activities of Vietnam in the US, receptions, community meetings... The diplomatic world in the capital of the world's leading power like the US must be very vibrant. What are your memorable experiences in that world? - Washington, DC is probably one of the places with the most diplomatic missions in the world, both bilateral and multilateral. In such a vibrant place, of course, the work of a diplomat is a lot, very heavy. If we only count the work meetings, there is at least one every day.

The US is a big country, they have many issues to care about, many things that affect the global scale, so if you want to attract their attention, you have to proactively meet them, proactively raise issues, otherwise your issues will become secondary or even forgotten. The mission of a diplomat is not only to promote government relations. Especially the US with its diverse internal components, from government officials to members of Congress, scholars, lobbyists, the media, large corporations and business associations... all can influence their domestic and foreign policies. However, meeting partners is one thing, the more important thing is to pay close attention to the American working style. Before coming to the US, I was Deputy Secretary of State, had many acquaintances, many friends working at the US National Security Council, the US Department of State, the US Department of Defense... When I started my term as Ambassador, I went to greet them, including a friend who was the Assistant Secretary of State, in charge of East Asia. Because we were friends, he said something that I kept thinking about, maybe I should understand the US better. He said that "we already know each other so there is no need to say hello, if you have something to do, you can come, otherwise you just need to text or call". What does that mean? That is, Americans like to speak directly, when meeting, they get straight to work without "beating around the bush".

The US Presidential election will take place in November 2024. Mr. Donald Trump, one of the candidates in this election, also ran in 2016 and was elected. I remember that on December 14, 2016, the Prime Minister of Vietnam had a phone call with the President-elect. As the Vietnamese Ambassador during this period, surely you and your colleagues worked at full capacity to do your job? - If we recall the US Presidential election in November 2016, the final result was probably beyond the expectations of many people, but for a diplomat, there is something different, that is, in all cases, we must maintain connections with both sides, no matter who wins the election, we can still contact and connect immediately. Mr. Donald Trump comes from a business background. At the end of the 2016 election, people could not immediately know what his political leadership style would be like, or what his specific policies would be with global partners in general, and partners in the Asia-Pacific region in particular. On our side, on the basis of the comprehensive partnership established in 2013, and on the basis of the country's consistent foreign policy, we need to proactively promote cooperative relations and further enhance bilateral understanding.

I remember that after talking to some relevant sources, there was a phone call between President-elect Donald Trump and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in mid-December 2016, less than a month after the election. It can be said that this was the first high-level contact between representatives of Vietnamese leaders and the US President-elect, with very positive content. Looking more broadly, we see that this is a period when many countries want to establish contact channels, want to promote relations with the US President-elect personally as well as the new administration after the election. For example, on November 17, 2016, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met President-elect Donald Trump in New York, and became the first foreign leader to meet directly with the President-elect in the context that Mr. Donald Trump was urgently preparing to form a new cabinet. Back to us, after the above phone call, the two sides discussed and arranged the visit of the Prime Minister of Vietnam to the United States in May 2017, holding talks at the White House. This was the first visit of an ASEAN government leader to the United States, just four months after Mr. Donald Trump officially took office. In December 2016, in the context that President-elect Donald Trump had not yet officially taken office, how was the above phone call arranged? - It is a fact that at that time, in the diplomatic community in Washington, DC, representatives of many countries maintained a "wait and see" attitude, that is, waiting for the policies and personnel of the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump to be more specific and clear. For our part, our Embassy believes that we need to proactively make contact from the beginning and have gone through friends in the US political circles as well as in Congress, the academic community, the business community..., asking this person and that person, and finally fortunately, we were able to contact close assistants of President-elect Donald Trump to arrange a high-level phone call. Everything happened very quickly and all through phone and email. Even after the first phone call between our Prime Minister and President-elect Donald Trump was successful, there were people on your side who participated in the arrangements, I only knew them through phone and email, and had never met them in person. Let me tell you one more detail. After determining the date and time of the phone call, I proposed to be ready to go to New York and your side arranged for the Vietnamese Ambassador to stand next to President-elect Donald Trump, witness and serve the phone call. However, your assistant said that they themselves were only doing the connecting task, not sure where Donald Trump was at that time because all communication was done via satellite phone. Through many terms of observing the US presidential election both as an Ambassador and as an expert in international relations, what experiences have you had? - An expert's perspective and analysis will certainly be different from that of an Ambassador. Approaching from an expert's perspective, a researcher will have many issues to observe, and may be very interested in predicting who gets the majority of votes, who gets less, and why. But a diplomat is different. You have to stay in your rightful position as a diplomatic representative, no matter which government comes into power, you will still do your duty, consistently.

The Ambassador follows the election not only to judge who wins and who loses, but more importantly, he also needs to stay in touch with the new administration, regardless of the election results, along with grasping policy movements, adjusting priorities, and arranging personnel. Researchers often only observe elections through the media, through books, through experience, while diplomats are people who roll up their sleeves in practice, are the "eyes and ears" on the ground, so the content of their policy advice and recommendations must be very in-depth, very close and very correct, I often call it having "added value" compared to usual. Currently, as an expert, what is your assessment of the US presidential election in November 2024? - The US is having a very deep division before the election season. But I think that besides the differences between the candidates, the US still has basic interests or in other words, common points in policy regardless of which administration comes into power. Each candidate may have a different approach to a particular issue, and different policy priorities, but I think the US political community is in agreement on promoting cooperation with ASEAN in general and with Vietnam in particular. After nearly 4 years as Ambassador to the US, when your term ends and you leave Washington, DC, what do you miss most about the US?

- The United States was the place where I had my first overseas business trip and also my first overseas trip in 1983. More than 3 decades later, I returned to the United States as an Ambassador. Looking back, there are many memories both at work and in everyday life. What makes me happiest is that the relationship between Vietnam and the United States is constantly developing, going into depth, substance, and trade is increasingly vibrant and effective. From a work perspective, the United States is a big country, Americans have the ego of a big country and a global approach. But from a daily perspective, they are straightforward, friendly people with common interests such as football, basketball, music, etc. They are busy so it is not easy to arrange a business meeting or a lunch. To facilitate meetings, I often tell my American friends that on the way home from work, there is a stop called "Vietnam House", the private residence of the Vietnamese Ambassador. You can stop for a beer, a glass of whisky or a cigar… Meet for just half an hour, chat happily as friends, not just for work purposes.

In 2014, when he began his term as Ambassador to the US, the two countries had just established a comprehensive partnership for one year. So at this time, were there any opinions about continuing to upgrade the relationship between the two sides? - The main task at the beginning of my term was to effectively implement the Vietnam-US Joint Statement on the occasion of the establishment of the comprehensive partnership in 2013. However, when I went to the US at the end of 2014, there was only a short time left, entering 2015, which would be the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This is a milestone, so what activities will the two sides have? In the 2013 Joint Statement, the two sides pledged to respect each other's political institutions, and on this basis, there were also opinions that if on the occasion of the 20th anniversary, there was an official visit by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam to the United States, it would create a very big impression. Through the direction of competent authorities and exchanges between diplomatic agencies of the two sides, as we know, in July 2015, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation paid an official visit to the United States of America at the invitation of the administration of President Barack Obama.

On February 23, 2015, at the White House, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to the United States of America Pham Quang Vinh presented his credentials to President Barack Obama (Photo: NVCC)

This is a historic visit. For the first time, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, an equivalent title not in the US administrative system, has officially visited the United States - a country that is a former enemy and has a different political system. During the visit, the two top leaders of the two countries met, talked with each other and held a press conference right in the Oval Office of the White House. In addition to President Obama, the US side's participants in the talks with the General Secretary and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation included Vice President Joe Biden and many other high-ranking officials. This is an unprecedented event. During the visit, US Vice President Joe Biden hosted a banquet for General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and read two verses of Kieu in a speech about 10 minutes long " The sky still lets us have today / The mist at the end of the alley clears the clouds in the sky ". It can be said that this is the beginning of a personal relationship between the two leaders of Vietnam and the US. And this was reiterated during President Joe Biden's state visit to Vietnam in September 2023, when the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The Joint Statement on the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership clearly stated the content of cooperation between the two countries in many different areas. In your opinion, what needs to be done to promote the implementation of this content? - There are many things to do, but personally I think of three things. The first is to continue to deepen the political and diplomatic relations between the two countries on the basis of respecting the United Nations Charter, international law and respecting each other's political institutions, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is a very important factor. The second is to enhance economic - trade - investment cooperation, focusing on new trends in which the US has strengths such as digital cooperation, science, technology, innovation, etc. How to promote cooperation and exploit cooperation opportunities in these areas. For example, Vietnam can become a part of the semiconductor value chain, about the production of chips? Affirming that Vietnam is a destination not only with economic benefits but also a safe destination, the countries feel secure to move the supply chain to Vietnam.

In February 2017, Vietnam Ambassador to the United States Pham Quang Vinh had a meeting with Senator John McCain (Photo: NVCC)

He once said that "Vietnam does not choose to play and play with all the parties". Competition for big water. Not choosing the side does not mean sitting still, we have to dare to play and play with all parties. For example In the economy, "play" with the fastidious markets is not easy . We have to constantly improve production capacity, improve the quality of our service . Design : Patrick Nguyen

17/06/2024 - 00:06

Dantri.com.vn

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