Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI - The diplomatic sector will continue to focus on strongly developing the identity of the Vietnamese 'bamboo diplomacy' in 2024 by concentrating on a number of focal points, Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn told the media on the occasion of the New Year.

Firstly, the sector will continue to strengthen the renovation of mindsets on external relations, the FM said, stressing the need to boldly go beyond old-fashioned thinking and find new methods for the benefit of the nation. It is necessary to strengthen strategic research, consultation and forecast on external relations, discovering new issues and identifying the strategic position of the country, and making full use of international trend to design proper policies and take suitable steps, he said.

Secondly, the sector will promote its pioneer role and coordinate with Party diplomacy, people-to-people diplomacy as well as other sectors to concertedly deploy foreign relations and diplomatic forces, firmly consolidating a peaceful and stable environment, protecting the Fatherland early and from afar, and mobilising new external resources for economic development and enhancement of the country’s position and prestige, the official underlined.

Thirdly, the diplomatic sector will focus on creating new breakthroughs in building and developing itself in a strong, comprehensive and modern manner, he said.

Noting that 'bamboo diplomacy' was first mentioned by Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng in 2016, he said that contents of the policy were highlighted by the leader during the National Conference on Foreign Affairs in December 2021.

The policy is built and developed on the foundation of inheriting and creatively applying the Hồ Chí Minh Thought and diplomatic art as well as the cultural and diplomatic identity of the nation, using the image of the Vietnamese bamboo with strong roots, solid stems, and flexible branches.

Directions by the Party leader has served as a guiding light for Vietnamese diplomacy to implement tasks in the current tenure, said the FM.

Looking back on external relations activities in 2023, Sơn said the activities have been bustled with 22 visits abroad by key national leaders and 28 visits to Việt Nam by leaders of other countries, contributing to expanding the country’s external relations in both bilateral and multilateral aspects. Particularly, economic diplomatic activities have made significant contributions to promoting the national economic growth, enabling the country to secure an import-export turnover of nearly US$700 billion and an increase of 14.8 per cent in foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction, he stated.

Regarding major orientations to turn economic diplomacy into an important motivation for fast and sustainable national development in 2024, FM Sơn said that economic diplomacy will be extensively associated with all external- relation activities, especially those at the high level, in close combination with political and cultural diplomacy as well as diplomatic areas. Economic cooperation has become a key pillar in all external relations, especially with important partners, he said.

The official noted that along with effectively implementing the already signed free trade agreements (FTA), this year Việt Nam has signed an FTA with Israel and is negotiating for FTAs with other partners, while ministries and sectors have inked more than 70 deals, localities reached nearly 100 agreements, and businesses signed hundreds of deals.

In 2024, amid many difficulties and risks as well as opportunities and headwinds, economic diplomacy will continue to focus on concretizing the newly upgraded relationship frameworks into practical and effective economic cooperation programmes and projects, especially in expanding markets and accessing new sources of capital for promotion of infrastructure development, high technology, digital transformation, green growth, tourism attraction, and labour export.

The sector will work with other sectors and localities to remove obstacles in economic cooperation with partners, especially important ones, enhancing the efficiency of support to industries, localities and business following the motto of taking the people, localities and business as the centre of its services, stated FM Sơn. VNS