Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: Foreign affairs contribute to protecting the Fatherland early and from afar

VOV.VN - The 13th National Party Congress has identified the pioneering role of foreign affairs in maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, mobilizing external resources to develop the country, and enhancing the country's position and prestige.

After nearly 40 years of national renovation, foreign affairs and diplomacy have closely coordinated with national defense and security to promote a pioneering role in maintaining a peaceful and stable environment. In the face of complex changes and external impacts, Vietnam has remained steadfast in maintaining independence and autonomy, ensuring the highest national and ethnic interests, being flexible and adaptable in its strategies to properly and harmoniously handle relations with partners as well as complex situations, repelling the risk of war and conflict early and from afar. On the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the establishment of the Diplomatic Service (August 28, 1945 - August 28, 2024), VOV reporters interviewed Dr. Nguyen Minh Vu, Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

PV : When it comes to protecting the Fatherland, we often think a lot about national defense capacity and the fighting strength of the army. That is only one side, but another very important side that cannot be ignored is foreign affairs and diplomacy, sir?

Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : That's right, like national defense, foreign affairs play a very important role in protecting the Fatherland early and from afar; national defense and foreign affairs have a close relationship, complementing each other. If national defense is the direct, core force in protecting the country from external threats; foreign affairs play an important role in establishing friendly relations with other countries, using peaceful measures to resolve disputes, thereby preventing the risk of conflict. Our foreign policy is an open, independent, self-reliant, peaceful, cooperative and developmental foreign policy, multilateralizing and diversifying foreign relations. Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner, a responsible member of the international community. The 13th National Party Congress has identified the pioneering role of foreign affairs in maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, mobilizing external resources to develop the country, enhancing the country's position and prestige. It can be seen that foreign affairs play a very important role in protecting the Fatherland early and from afar in its own way. Reporter : Making more friends and fewer enemies, increasing partners and reducing targets are some of the pioneering tasks of foreign affairs? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : It can be said that foreign affairs activities, including defense and security diplomacy, have contributed to creating a peaceful, stable and favorable environment for protecting the Fatherland. From being surrounded and embargoed, up to now, we have had more open diplomatic relations than ever with 193 countries, of which we have established a framework of strategic partnerships and comprehensive partnerships with 30 countries, including most of the countries in the G7 and G20 groups. In particular, Vietnam is the only country in ASEAN that has comprehensive strategic partnerships and strategic partnerships with all members of the United Nations Security Council and all countries in ASEAN. With such an open foreign policy, we have increasingly more conditions to deepen relations with other countries, increase political trust and intertwine interests. In that way, diplomacy has contributed to making more friends, fewer enemies, increasing partners, and reducing objects. Reporter: There is an opinion that the strength to protect the Fatherland of the Vietnamese people also comes from an open foreign policy, placing ourselves in the right flow of humanity. Do you agree with this opinion? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : This is a very correct opinion. I think that this opinion stems from one of the very important lessons of our Party, which is to combine national strength with the strength of the times. Promoting national strength is the decisive factor for the victory of the Vietnamese revolution, especially the strength of the people, of the people's hearts, of the ardent patriotism of the nation. Besides, we also take advantage of the strength of the times, although the world situation is changing complicatedly, peace and cooperation for development are still the great trend and the ardent aspiration of all nations. Our foreign policy and guidelines have always been consistent with that trend, thereby gaining broad support from the international community and external resources for the cause of national construction and defense. Reporter : How was this demonstrated during the period when we waged the resistance war for national liberation? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : This assessment can be clearly seen through the revolutionary periods. During the national liberation revolution, our Party identified and took advantage of three revolutionary streams, which are the stream of building socialism, the stream of national liberation and the stream of demanding democracy, people's livelihood and protecting peace. These three revolutionary streams are the inspiration, the guiding flag and the driving force for the struggle of progressive humanity in the world. Taking advantage of those three revolutionary streams has contributed to the success of the national liberation struggle. Reporter: What about the period since the country's renovation until now, sir? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : In the renovation period, our Party has promptly recognized and correctly assessed important changes, especially the laws of development and major trends in the world's movements that have impacted the country's development as well as the protection of the Fatherland, such as the trend of peace, cooperation and development, the trend of respecting international law and the United Nations Charter. This is an important basis for determining the country's strategic priorities, as well as policies and measures to protect national interests. In the current period, our Party has also promptly identified new emerging trends such as green growth, digital transformation, energy transformation, the trend of democratization of international relations as well as the rapid development of the scientific and technological revolution, which are creating unprecedented opportunities and challenges for countries, in order to promptly take measures to take advantage of these positive trends to serve the security and development goals of the country. Reporter : Building a strong, compact, and elite army, from the perspective of foreign affairs, what is the significance of our expansion of defense cooperation relations? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : Building a "strong, compact, and elite" army is a correct and timely policy, demonstrating the strategic vision of our Party, and is the development of the tradition of building and defending the country "Using the few to fight the many, using the weak to defeat the strong" of previous generations. Building a "strong, compact, and elite" army is first of all based on domestic strength, the strength of the national defense posture, and the posture of the people's hearts. But at the same time, building a "refined, compact, strong" army will be even more meaningful with a network of friends, trusted partners, sincere cooperation, sharing the common goal of protecting peace and security. Through such a network of partners, we can not only mobilize resources, learn from experiences to build a "refined, compact, strong" army, but also contribute with partners to protecting peace, solving common challenges, and enhancing the position of the Vietnamese army in the world. Reporter : In your opinion, is expanding foreign relations and international integration in defense simply so that we can purchase more new types of weapons and equipment, contributing to increasing the country's defense potential? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : I think that is absolutely not the case, although in the era of strong development of science and technology like today, strengthening foreign relations and international integration in defense contributes significantly to the modernization of our defense and army. However, this is only one aspect of foreign relations and international integration in defense. In the current period, defense cooperation is more important than strengthening political trust with partners around the world. On the one hand, defense foreign relations demonstrate the depth and breadth of the relationship because defense relations can only take place between partners with a deep relationship framework and a certain level of political trust. But at the same time, expanding defense relations with partners will contribute to increasing political trust. Therefore, in upgrading the comprehensive strategic partnership with a number of partners, an indispensable pillar is the expansion of defense and security foreign relations. PV : When there is political trust, defense cooperation, an area that is always considered sensitive, will also be more open, practical and effective? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : That's right, through defense cooperation, we also exchange experiences and cooperate with the armies of other countries to find effective solutions to regional and global security challenges such as natural disaster prevention and control, piracy, counter-terrorism, search and rescue in international waters. At the same time, strengthening defense cooperation between Vietnam and other countries will create conditions for Vietnam's deeper defense and security integration in solving common regional and global security issues, demonstrating Vietnam's responsible role, especially in areas such as peacekeeping, search and rescue, etc. Reporter : Diplomats often say that when military officers clink glasses together, there will be no gunfire. And this can only be achieved when strategic trust or political trust is established and created? Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu : A very important point in defense and security relations is to create mechanisms for the countries involved to narrow their differences. Narrowing differences to resolve existing problems in a spirit of mutual understanding, by peaceful means, by understanding, through exchange and negotiation, thereby helping to prevent the risk of conflict and the risk of war early and from afar. That is why, before the renovation, we only had defense cooperation relations with 30 countries, but now our defense cooperation has expanded to more than 100 countries. We have established direct defense attaché offices in 33 countries as well as concurrently in 41 countries and the United Nations. All of these cooperative relations are not simply related to arms procurement but are mostly to enhance political trust, enhance cooperation, and create common mechanisms to resolve common problems.

PV : Thank you, Deputy Minister.

Truong Giang/VOV

Source: https://vov.vn/chinh-tri/thu-truong-bo-ngoai-giao-doi-ngoai-gop-phan-bao-ve-to-quoc-tu-som-tu-xa-post1116905.vov