On the evening of October 2, Irish President Michael D. Higgins delivered a speech welcoming General Secretary and President To Lam and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation at a dinner party during the State visit. VOV Online Newspaper respectfully introduces the speech of Irish President Michael D. Higgins
Dear General Secretary, President To Lam, Prime Minister,
Ministers,
Ambassadors, Distinguished Guests, It is a great pleasure to welcome you this evening. Welcome to Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of every President of Ireland since 1938. It is also a great honour for me to have the opportunity to reciprocate the hospitality that you extended to Sabina and me in 2016 when we visited your wonderful and beautiful country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. I feel extremely honoured to be the first Irish President to make a State Visit to Vietnam. I hope that my visit will contribute to maintaining and strengthening the sincere and growing friendship that binds the people of Ireland and Vietnam together.I am sure that your visit to Ireland today will develop and expand this relationship even further. I still remember my visit to the ethnic minority communities in Vietnam where a number of Irish companies are working.
This first state visit from Vietnam to Ireland will be an excellent opportunity to further recognise and renew the friendship between our two countries. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my solidarity with the President, and through him, my sympathies to the people of Vietnam who have suffered the tragic loss of life and the devastation caused by Typhoon Yagi. On behalf of the Irish people, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to the families and communities affected by the storm. As a long-standing development partner with Vietnam, Ireland is committed to supporting the humanitarian recovery effort. I would also like to express my sincere condolences on the recent passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. During my visit to Vietnam in 2016, I met General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. He was an important figure of international stature. He made a great contribution to Vietnam. I would also like to point out that our two countries, Vietnam and Ireland, have a lot in common in terms of history. There are many ways in which we Irish people can identify, empathize and imagine the Vietnamese inspiration for independence and the right to achieve fulfillment with respect for the culture of others. Ireland’s journey and Vietnam’s journey are journeys that touch the heart. Your country has had to go through a historical journey with a lot of suffering caused by foreign invaders. That history cannot affect your present or take away your ability to go into the future, and it is important not to acknowledge the false memories associated with its consequences. Your entire history belongs to you, and the world must learn from the tragedies that your country has endured. In fact, the brutal war imagery from Vietnam – I think the war posters in Vietnam – has had a huge impact on human rights struggles around the world. Both our cultures have their roots in ancient civilizations renowned for their academic, spiritual and artistic values. The people of both our countries have suffered the poisonous experience of the imposition of a sense of superiority by hegemonic culture, by imperialism, and in your case, by the ambitions of the four imperialisms. Both our countries have suffered the scourge of famine and its many profound consequences. Culturally, both our countries have suffered from the cultural theories of imperialism that served to justify the superiority of the colonizers over the colonized, and to rationalize the rule of the world, not by the majority of races but by the few imperial powers. Our people led the indomitable and unyielding struggle for independence, which was linked to the Paris meetings. We recall the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which was followed by the clash of powers created by World War I; a conference where the young Ho Chi Minh submitted a petition demanding that the French fulfill their promise of independence. Many contemporary conflicts are the result of the unfinished business of such empires. Ho Chi Minh was not alone in not receiving a response from the world powers hosting the conference. Likewise, the doors of Paris were closed to Irish Republicans seeking support for independence from the British Empire. The rejections that the Irish and Vietnamese leaders received at that time were evidence of the risks of placing too much faith in the concessions of an imperial power. Vietnam and Ireland understood the immense difficulty of securing, demonstrating and fulfilling the promises of liberty, justice and equality, which motivated and called them to fight for independence. The most difficult decades followed the euphoria of independence. Our shared history has given us not only a shared understanding of the impact of colonialism and conflict, but also of the tasks of nation-building and meeting the needs of our people, and continues to strengthen our relationship at every level. In recent decades, our two countries have traveled a challenging but meaningful journey from conflict to fruitful, harmonious relations with the generations that followed our oppressors. Both countries value peace and stability in this turbulent world. Economically, both Ireland and Vietnam have moved rapidly from a reliance on relatively poor agricultural economies to more diversified forms of manufacturing economies and have made significant economic and social progress in a complex and globalised world that is increasingly interdependent, not just in terms of trade, but also in terms of global issues such as those related to the impacts of climate change. The world today requires a new and imaginative global multilateral architecture if it is to achieve a diversified democratic future, one that can bring about new links between social rights, economics and ecology. Vietnam will be praised for its achievements in reducing poverty, improving access to education and improving infrastructure. Thirty years ago, 60% of Vietnam’s population lived in poverty; today multidimensional poverty is less than 4%. Guided by the commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this remarkable achievement has transformed the lives and wealth of ten million people. During my visit, I have seen first-hand the energy and dynamism with which your people have made this progress possible. Such achievements are nothing less than a form of shared social capital. Ireland’s approach to Official Development Assistance over the past decades has been informed by Ireland’s own experience of hunger and underdevelopment. We therefore prioritise food security as part of our development assistance programme. In Vietnam this is reflected in the Ireland-Vietnam Agri-Food Partnership, which supports climate resilient agriculture, food system transformation and collaborative development. I know that Vietnam has a particular interest in Ireland’s co-operative movement, which promoted economic democracy in the face of the profound political change that brought independence more than a century ago. New global challenges remind us that it is worth looking again at how we can build more cooperative economies that can prosper, be inclusive and survive together. In recent decades, Vietnam and Ireland have enjoyed a mutually beneficial trade and investment relationship. With rapid change and new opportunities come new and significant challenges, particularly in relation to the globalised economy and trade structures that Vietnam and Ireland are opening up to. Such structures risk focusing on the importance of transparency and accountability, and raise serious questions, not least the proliferation of so many inappropriate, unregulated and undemocratic development models, all of which are leading to the crisis of legitimation that the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas first mentioned some 50 years ago. Everywhere we look, we can see how inequality and poverty threaten deep social cohesion, how climate change, food security, global poverty and migration are closely linked, how fuel substitution and conflict, how intergenerational justice are threatened as we witness the natural environment deteriorating at alarming rates – all of which can be seen as failures of humanity. Vietnam’s role as one of only four countries globally to join the EU-supported Just Energy Transition Partnership shows its determination to confront and lead the global response to climate change, aiming to transform the possibilities of renewable energy in Vietnam. By responding and adapting to international initiatives like these, I am confident that as a global community we can address the challenges we face. National representatives must now also speak out on global issues. We are going through a period when militarism has replaced diplomacy. We are being told that we may be at the beginning of a new nuclear arms race. Sure enough, the statistics confirm this: last year, global military spending rose by 6.8% to $2.44 trillion, the highest level ever recorded. I propose that we never lose sight of the possibilities that lie before us in our quest for the conditions of a common peace; how liberating our lives can be without war, hunger, poverty and greed in a world that radiates the toxic ideals of imperialism, racism and the “Alien” and reinforces the good instincts of humanity; how we can build an inclusive society at home while working with other nations to build a world that is peaceful, sustainable and hopeful. I would like to take this opportunity to commend Vietnam's important and active role in regional security, including its non-aligned diplomatic methods and its "Four Nos" policy - no military alliances, no cliques with one country to fight against another, no military bases abroad or using Vietnam as a lever to counterattack other countries, and no threats or use of force. This non-aligned strategy and healthy, balanced relations with major powers have brought great benefits to Vietnam. The uncritical evolution of economic and social forms of power has always been presented in the noun "modernization". We should take a deep look at the opportunities and risks we face, risks that we share. No country should be forced to rush toward a development model presented under the illusion of ill-defined “modernization,” a model that only reinforces a failed and toxic way, without thinking it through. Do current global models of trade and finance, production, resource extraction, really advance the fundamental goal of human development? Do such models preserve the hierarchy of purpose that should exist—and be restored—between economic and social outcomes that have a moral purpose? To quantify our achievements or failures, to what extent does the rate of economic development, as it is currently defined and measured in the narrow sense, reflect the ability of the economy to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable population, to provide universal basic services? These are questions we must answer through the lens of our present circumstances, but also now within the new parameters of the global agreements signed in 2015 on sustainable development and climate change – the United Nations 2030 Agenda, from which we have sadly strayed; indeed, in some areas, we have even retreated. We have a historic opportunity, and a real responsibility, to lay the foundations for a new model for human prosperity and social harmony. We must confront the militaristic rhetoric that is now omnipresent, even hegemonic. The scale of the global challenges we face together requires not only a revival of the truly idealistic impulses that propelled our ancestors forward in their finest and most altruistic moments towards a new independent world. This also requires new models of cooperation at national and international levels, as well as new academic relationships, in which nature can create balanced and respectful relationships between the world’s peoples, between people and with other living things on the planet. Today, Ireland and Vietnam have emerged as countries on a journey to greater prosperity, with countless opportunities within reach for new international partnerships. I look forward to this strong relationship, and I sense that you do too, Mr General Secretary and President To Lam, that together we will build a civilisation that is cooperative, caring and non-exploitative, guided by the best traditions and institutions of the nations of the world, but also by the diversity of our rich memories and experiences – not only memories that will inevitably resurface old wounds, failures and lost opportunities, but also invigorated visions and futures that are envisioned and realised, perhaps even based on utopian ideals. There is a young Irish population living in Vietnam, many working in the education sector – both absorbing and sharing valuable experiences. I thank you sincerely for your warm welcome to them. I know that that warm welcome is extended to the many Irish who visit Vietnam each year to experience your magnificent landscapes and rich cultural heritage. In Ireland, there is also a Vietnamese community, estimated at around 4,000 people. This is a thriving community, making important and valuable contributions to many areas of national life - social, economic and cultural. Our two countries share a deep appreciation and attachment to culture, both traditional and contemporary. Our people hold literature, poetry, music and song in high regard. I would like to thank the musicians who have performed for us this evening. Distinguished guests, a warm welcome to the values that we have shared and will share in our friendship and the ties that have been further strengthened through this visit. I would like to invite all of you, distinguished guests, to stand and join me in opening this banquet: To the health of General Secretary and President To Lam, and to the lasting friendship between the people of Ireland and Vietnam.VOV.vn
Source: https://vov.vn/chinh-tri/tong-thong-ireland-ca-ngi-vai-tro-quan-trong-va-tich-cuc-cua-viet-nam-trong-an-ninh-khu-vuc-post1125776.vov
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