Party General Secretary Tô Lâm and President Tô Lâm with the leadership of the defence ministry as he attended opening ceremony of the 2024-25 academic year of the National Defence Academy on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Lâm Khánh

HÀ NỘI — General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee and State President Tô Lâm attended the opening ceremony of the 2024-25 academic year of the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Hà Nội on Thursday.

Over the past 47 years of development, the NDA has played a crucial role in implementing the Party's viewpoints and guidelines, and the State's policies and laws, as well as directions from the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence; training and developing personnel; providing strategic advice on national defence, security, and military matters, building the armed forces, and combining socio-economic and cultural development with national defence and security.

Speaking at the ceremony, Lâm emphasised that the building and protection of the nation are two strategic and overarching tasks of the revolution, in which nation safeguarding is a crucial condition and prerequisite for creating a peaceful and stable environment for the rapid and sustainable development of the country.

Over the past years, under the Party's leadership and the active engagement of the entire political system, the whole people and the military, the nation has been firmly protected early and from afar, following the principle of safeguarding the country before it is in danger. The image of Việt Nam as a peaceful and stable country, with its people's continuously improving material and spiritual lives, and its contributions to maintaining global peace, has become a powerful source of inspiration for many countries and a driving force for national development in the new era, Lâm stressed.

Hailing the academy’s great contributions to this cause, the top leader noted that unpredictably developments in the world and domestic situations are setting higher requirements for the Fatherland safeguarding task.

Therefore, he urged the academy to thoroughly grasp and effectively implement the Party's policies on fundamentally and comprehensively renewing education and training, in alignment with national defence in the new context, thereby contributing to improving the quality of the personnel of the Party, the State, and the armed forces in the new era.

It is also important to focus on digital transformation, manage and utilise big data, and develop digital and smart education that adapts to the advancement of artificial intelligence, with an aim to turn the NDA into a leading centre for researching military science and tactics in the region, emphasised Lâm.

In order to protect the Fatherland early and from afar amid great internal and external challenges, the academy should strengthen revolutionary theory research, while expanding external defence relations and international cooperation to learn from their experience and knowledge and perfect military art in the new era, he stated.

Lâm requested the academy to show stronger performance in Party building and rectification, developing a leading contingent of officials, lecturers and scientists who set good examples in political mettle, moral qualities, professional expertise and capacity, and engaging in the battle in the ideological and theoretical front, contributing to firmly protecting the Party's ideological foundation and fighting against wrongful and hostile allegations.

For trainees at the academy, the top leader asked them to be fully aware of the increasing demand on mindset, vision, mettle, quality and capacity of an official of the Party, State and armed forces during the country’s new development period, thus working hard to develop their qualities and capabilities to make positive contributions to the Fatherland construction and defence after graduation.

He pledged that the Party and State will continue to pay attention to leading, directing and providing favourable conditions for the academy to further improve its training quality and efficiency, turning the academy into a modern military and defence training and scientific research centre on par with those of other countries in the region and the world. — VNS