Permanent member of the Party Central Committee's Secretariat Võ Văn Thưởng (left) visits the exhibition of activities of the foreign ministers. — VNA/VNS Photo Lâm Khánh

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday held a conference on Party building and overseas branches work within the framework of the 31st National Diplomacy Conference.

Politburo member, Permanent member of the Party Central Committee's Secretariat Võ Văn Thưởng chaired the conference. 

Speaking at the conference, member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of the ministry’s Party Committee's Personnel Committee and Secretary of the ministry’s Party Committee Bùi Thanh Sơn, said Party building plays a key role and is one of the decisive factors for all victories on the foreign front.

The minister emphasised that the foreign affairs sector has always been important to the position and role of Party building work as well as the care taken in Party building in terms of politics, ideology, organisation and personnel. 

He summarised some outstanding results in Party building work of the foreign ministry, including the merging of the Overseas Party Committee with the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said the merger created a new strength for the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

At the same time, it also sets higher and more complicated requirements on Party building in the diplomatic service, especially in overseas party work.

Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo and the Secretariat, the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has promoted the glorious tradition, solidarity, unity with high determination, to successfully carry out foreign affairs tasks and Party building tasks. 

Also, the ministry’s work on research and consultancy on Party building has made great progress. The ministry actively participated in formulating foreign policies and Party building contents of the 13th National Congress; contributing ideas for the development of regulations of the Central Committee, Sơn said. 

Regarding the implementation of political tasks, the ministry has led the comprehensive and effective implementation of diplomatic channels, including bilateral diplomacy, multilateral diplomacy, political diplomacy, economic relations, cultural diplomacy, citizen protection, and overseas Vietnamese work. 

The building and improving of the quality of Party members has also been done on a regular basis, he said.

Besides the achievements, Sơn said that there are still many things that can be improved, especially strengthening the leadership, direction and capacity of the foreign ministry. 

From the results and lessons learned, Sơn offered a number of proposals, of which the focus is on personnel building.

"It is necessary to continue to attach more importance to the training and retraining of diplomats in terms of qualifications, capacity and especially political bravery. Each cadre, party member, and especially leaders, must be exemplary and take the lead, staying absolutely loyal to the Party and national interests,” Sơn said. 

“Only by building a contingent of diplomatic cadres who are comprehensive in ideology, who have political bravery and modern working style and manners, can we build a comprehensive and modern foreign affairs sector,” he said. — VNS