Vietnam attends UN meeting on civilian protection

Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh.

Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh, Vietnam’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, attended a meeting of the fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War in Geneva, Switzerland on December 17.

Representatives from 126 state members of the convention at the event adopted the meeting’s declaration, pointing out several violations of banned regulations, including attacks on non-military objectives as well as on protected persons and facilities like schools, health institutes, public vehicles and humanitarian officials.

The declaration reiterated the International Court of Justice’s opinion relating to the construction of a wall in and around east Jerusalem, while showing deep concerns over measures Israel is conducting in the Palestinian territory, such as closing the Gaza Strip, building and expanding Jewish settlement zones and taking assets away.

The actions have caused serious impacts on the lives of Palestinian civilians.

Through the declaration, the convention’s state members called on UN offices involved, including the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict established by the UN Human Rights Council in July 2014, to bring to light war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.

Following meetings in July 1999 and May 2001, this is the third time the members have gathered to discuss and approve a declaration on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Parliamentarians seek to foster ties with UK

A delegation of Vietnamese parliamentarians led by Nguyen Van Giau, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Economic Committee, paid a working visit to the UK from December 14-19 to boost the friendship and cooperation with their British counterparts.

During their stay, on December 17, the guests were received by Chairman of the UK’s All-Party Parliament Group on Vietnam (APPG) George Howarth, who affirmed that his group will continue urging the UK Government to further bolster ties with Vietnam and raise its stronger voice in support of the Asian country in issues related to the East Sea and navigation safety.

He also vowed to back Vietnam at the European Parliament and wished to earn the country’s support in international issues.

For his part, Giau, who is head of the newly-established Vietnam-UK Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group (VUFPG), thanked APPG for raising funds for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and Howarth himself for supporting Vietnam when China illegally placed its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 in Vietnam ’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf last May.

VUFPG will work closely with APPG to further promote the relations between the two nations in the future, he said.

The same day, the delegation met with British parliamentarians who will attend to the 132 nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-132) to be hosted by Vietnam next year.

Giau informed the hosts of Vietnam’s preparations for the event, which he said will create an important forum for the Union’s member parliaments to outline post-2015 development strategies as well as help raise the voice of Asian nations in the IPU.

During their trip, the delegation had a working session with the Vietnam-UK Network, which gathers individuals, organisations and businesses joining their hands to boost bilateral relations.

Vietnam People’s Army expands external relations

Expanding international cooperation in defence is an important vision in the building of the army during international integration process.

The issue is raised in an article “Building the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) in the process of global integration” by Colonel Vu Khanh from the Ministry of Defence’s Institute of Defence Strategy.

The people’s army will continue broadening bilateral defence ties, especially key ones, Colonel Khanh affirmed.

Priority will be given to the exchanges of military delegations, the sharing of information and experience, personnel training, and humanitarian missions.

According to Khanh, it is necessary to intensify defence cooperation with the ASEAN member countries as part of the programme on building the ASEAN Politics-Security community and in line with bilateral relations between the VPA and each country.

The VPA also pays attention to further broadening external dialogues with concerned countries to share viewpoints, thus promoting mutual understanding and trust while opening up opportunities to solve issues relating to parties’ interests.

Colonel Khanh stressed the maintenance and expansion of annual dialogues at deputy-ministerial level with regional countries and beyond, as well as upgrading the mechanism to ministerial strategic discussion if necessary.

The dialogues and exchanges will be multiplied, especially between young officers, and among schools and institutes, to help increase understanding and strategic trust between the VPA and other countries’ armies, he said.

Boosting naval cooperation in the spirit of friendship and cooperation on maritime security defence is also a task in the VPA’s external relations expansion plan.

He stressed the importance of the relations in addressing sea-borne issues in a bid to prevent conflicts, increase the friendship among armies and maintain peace and stability in disputed areas and in the East Sea.

Naval cooperation in training will be strengthened in the service of humanitarian activities and disaster relief aid. The Vietnamese Navy will continue to maintain hotlines and joint patrols with other navies.

The Vietnam Border should proactively enhance their international connection to fully implement international border treaties and agreements to combat crimes, such as cross-border smuggling, illegal immigration, and human and drug trafficking for peaceful and friendly borderlines.

Regarding the VPA’s participation in the United Nations peacekeeping operations, Colonel Vu Khanh noted that the establishment of the Vietnam Peace Keeping Centre in last May will contribute to improving the quality of operation and personnel training as well as meeting the demand on activities in UN peace keeping missions. The centre will closely coordinate with other similar centres in ASEAN and countries in terms of staff training, firstly in sapper and military medicine fields.

The settlement of non-traditional security issues is also among priorities in the VPA’s international collaboration, in parallel with the building of a modern, regular army and the development of military science, concluded Colonel Vu Khanh.