Member of the Politburo, Chief of Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, and Deputy Minister of Defense Phan Van Giang

Recalling the history of thousands of years of building and defending the nation, Mr. Giang said: “Building the country must go hand in hand with defending the country. It is an inevitable rule that has existed and developed through different periods of our nation's history."

With that in mind, Vietnam has been proactively preparing in all aspects in peacetime, considering building and consolidating national defense, and mobilizing the people’s strength and support as the best way to defend the country.

He said that the fourth industrial revolution, especially the digital industry, has developed strongly, creating breakthroughs in many fields, including defense, and posing both opportunities and challenges for all nations and peoples.

New forms of war have appeared, changing the strategic environment. The appearance of modern weapons and military technical equipment have fundamentally changed the military organization, the form of war and the method of waging war.

The advent of cyberwar has made profound impacts on defense and security of the world, the region and of each country. Non-traditional security factors, especially terrorism, natural disasters and epidemics continue to be complicated.

According to the Chief of Staff of the People's Army, the Asia-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, has an increasingly important strategic position and is a region for strategic competition among great powers, with potential volatility.

Delegates at the conference.

Disputes over territorial sovereignty, on the sea and on islands, have been tense, complicated and serious. Peace, stability, freedom of security and safety of navigation and overflight in the East Sea face great challenges, with potential risks of conflicts.

"As for the East Sea situation, there are still tense and complicated developments, posing a new challenge to defend sovereignty over the sea and islands," said Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang.

“We have to deal with the situation in a methodical, fundamental, long-term, strategic and consistent manner, on the basis of respect for international law,'' he said.

Implementation of this is under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) of ASEAN. The content of the Code of Conduct (COC) is being completed, and this must be done according to the actual situation.

The Communist Party of Vietnam will defend the country with combined strength, be steadfast in strategic principles, flexible in handling defense-related situations, and ensure that the country is proactive in strategy in all situations.

The 13th Party Congress determines the directions and objectives: To build a regular, elite, step-by-step modernized army; a number of armed services, arms and forces to go straight to modernization. By 2025, to basically build an elite and strong army. By 2030, to build a number of modern armed services, arms and forces.

Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang said that, thoroughly grasping the Party's defense and military lines, over the years, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Defense have implemented synchronous solutions to build an elite, neat and strong army, ensuring the balance and relative synchronization between armed services, arms, between regular and reserve forces.

Mr. Giang said that after 1975, the army had 11 military zones, which were dissolved and merged to reduce to seven military zones at present. The capital military zone was also transformed into the Capital’s High Command to streamline the apparatus. Previously, a military zone could have 5-7 divisions; now each military zone has only one division.

Since 2016, the military has reduced the number of its subsidiaries to 800 organizations and dissolved vocational training schools.

According to Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, new perceptions and thoughts on national defense in the 13th Party Congress' documents are major, correct and strategic undertakings, which are the result of the profound summarization of the Party's leadership on national defense.

Thu Hang

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