HÀ NỘI — The military would continue to build its strength and might to defend and protect the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam, wrote Politburo member and Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc in an article on the 74th anniversary of the Việt Nam People’s Army founding day, December 22, 1944.

“In 74 years of rich and proud history, under the leadership of the Communist Party and the guidance of President Hồ Chí Minh, Việt Nam’s military has been growing continuously. From the original 34 members of the Việt Nam Armed Propaganda Unit for National Liberation, throughout two anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist wars, our struggles for national independence, to the periods of building socialism and then the open-up and deeper integration into the international community, the People’s Army has been getting stronger and more mature, having consolidated its organisational structure and fostered its comprehensive powers – with modern arms and powerful corps, capable of defeating all invading enemies,” PM Phúc wrote.

The military’s tactics have also shown a masterful combination of modern combat strategies with traditional methods to deal with the most sophisticated plans by the hostile forces.

The Government leader wrote that in the future, co-operation for peace and development would continue to be the prevailing trend in the region and in the world, but issues would also get more “complicated, fast-changing and unpredictable,” he said, referring to very real threats of territorial disputes, terrorism, limited war, racial or religious conflicts, as well as efforts at forced intervention and instigating destabilisation and subversion.

He also noted the growing competition between world’s great powers, who simultaneously seek to co-operate and contain each other.

Hostile, reactionary forces against Việt Nam would continue to wage the ‘peaceful evolution’ with increasingly cunning means, to discredit the State leaders and the Communist Party, to undermine the great national unity, and attempt to separate the Party from the military under the pretext of “depoliticising the military,” PM Phúc wrote.

In such context of “new, demanding and onerous challenges”, the People’s Army of Việt Nam, entrusted with the critical role of protecting the national building efforts, must raise their guard and expand their commitments to accompany the Party and the Vietnamese people to firmly protect the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam.

Five priorities

To effectively exercise their assigned duties in the new era, PM Phúc asked that the military must focus on the “five priorities”:

First, all the officers and rank-and-file soldiers must be thoroughly imbued with the Party’s idea and direction on national defence matters which are laid out in the Party’s Resolutions.

Second, the military must continue to enhance training quality and combat capacity, striving towards obtaining early victories. Co-ordination between armed forces would also need to be further promoted.

Third, the military must continue to make sure its Party committees are “of integrity and steadfast political, ideological and ethical principles.”

Fourth, the military ought to well-implement mass mobilisation to earn people’s trust and loyalty, as well as identify helping people prepare for or remedy the consequences of natural disasters as the armed forces’ essential mission in peacetime.

Fifth, the military must promote international integration and enhance the effectiveness of bilateral and multilateral defence diplomacy, making it one of the pillars in our efforts to uphold the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence, and to engender peace and order to serve our economic development.

In defence diplomacy, the military is told to give higher priorities to countries sharing the borders with Việt Nam, consolidate relations with world’s powers, cherish relations with ASEAN member countries, intensify relations with traditional friends and developed countries, bearing in mind the “ultimate goal” of maintaining an “early and from afar” line of defence for the country. — VNS