Vietnamese female peacekeepers march during a parade marking the 80th National Day in Hà Nội in September 2025. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — As Việt Nam reshapes its defence strategy to meet increasingly complex security challenges, women in uniform are emerging as a decisive force — not only on traditional fronts but at the forefront of the military’s digital transformation.

Women constitute an important component of the armed forces and the Việt Nam People’s Army, making substantial contributions across advisory, logistics, technical, medical, scientific research, training and defence diplomacy fields.

In recent years, Vietnamese military women have demonstrated their constructive role to peace and security in the region and the world.

Việt Nam has recorded significant progress in promoting gender equality and implementing the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda.

The role and status of women within the political system, foreign affairs, national defence and security have continued to rise.

The proportion of women in leadership and management positions has steadily increased, while their participation in international cooperation activities has become more substantive and effective.

Vietnamese female military personnel have directly participated in United Nations peacekeeping operations, undertaking positions that require high professional competence, resilience, discipline and the ability to work in multinational environments.

These practical achievements affirm that military women in Việt Nam are not merely beneficiaries of support and facilitation, but a vital force actively contributing to peace and security at national and international levels.

Digital transformation

Entering the digital era, digital transformation in the defence sector is opening new opportunities to enhance leadership, command, management and task implementation.

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Gấu, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Việt Nam and deputy minister of National Defence, said that for military women, this transformation would create favourable conditions to access new knowledge and technologies, expand their scope of engagement and assert their capabilities in knowledge- and technology-intensive fields.

The digital environment also poses risks, including information security breaches, cyberattacks, misuse of cyberspace as well as online violence and harassment, according to Gấu.

Enhancing digital capacity must go hand in hand with strengthening awareness, skills and mechanisms to ensure safety, discipline and responsibility in cyberspace use.

The Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence have consistently prioritised leadership and direction for women’s advancement and gender equality in the military.

In the digital transformation process, the ministry places special emphasis on human resource development, including female officers and personnel, linking improved digital capacity with safety, discipline and work efficiency to meet mission requirements.

Colonel Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, head of the Military Women’s Board under the Ministry of National Defence, emphasised that amid increasingly complex and intertwined traditional and non-traditional security challenges, digital transformation would no longer be merely a technological trend but an integral component of national capacity, defence capacity and individual capability.

Việt Nam’s issuance of the National Action Programme on Women, Peace and Security for the 2024–30 period demonstrated the concretisation of its international commitments and reflected the strategic vision of the Party and State in placing people, including women, at the centre of peace and security.

Hiền said the Ministry of National Defence had translated the agenda into an Action Plan for Women’s Advancement and Gender Equality, implementing the Women, Peace and Security programme in the military for the 2026–30 period, comprising eight objectives and 26 specific targets.

Policy commitments

In addition to six priority areas – politics; economy and labour; family and prevention and response to gender-based violence; healthcare; education, training and scientific research; and information and communication – the plan introduces two new areas: digital transformation and implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Vietnamese female military officers bid farewell before departing for overseas peace and security missions. — VNA/VNS Photo

From an international perspective, Caroline Nyamayemombe, country representative of UN Women in Việt Nam, said empowering and protecting female military personnel in the digital era would not only be about safeguarding the fundamental rights of women and girls online but also about ensuring readiness, adaptability and strengthening national strategic and digital security advantages.

Ensuring that women possess the necessary skills, protection mechanisms and leadership opportunities would be critical to strengthening armed forces and enhancing the effectiveness of sustainable defence and security efforts, she said.

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Payne, defence attaché of Canada to Việt Nam, noted that Canada underscored its leadership role in advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda by funding related initiatives implemented through the Canadian Armed Forces and the Directorate of Military Training and Cooperation.

Within the framework of its long-term partnership with Việt Nam, Canada supports peacekeeping training, gender-responsive capacity building and emerging priorities such as digital security for female military personnel.

Through military training cooperation programmes, Canadian instructors and experts contribute to enhancing Việt Nam’s capacity to prepare and deploy female peacekeepers, mainstream gender perspectives in military operations and strengthen protection against cybersecurity risks.

This demonstrates Canada’s commitment to substantive cooperation, contributing to more effective, inclusive and safe global peacekeeping activities, according to Payne.

AI readiness

According to Captain Vũ Thị Hạnh, senior AI specialist at Viettel AI Centre, developing a comprehensive system of solutions to enhance the effective and safe use of AI in both work and daily life among military women will contribute to building a modern, humane and sustainable military in the digital era.

To use AI effectively and safely, she suggested that military women should be developed under a competency framework comprising six core elements: AI literacy; the ability to use AI tools at work; information security capacity; critical thinking with AI; co-creation with AI; and AI leadership and governance.

She proposed that the first priority should be strengthening core competencies and AI-oriented thinking, shifting from the perception that AI is an unfamiliar tool to viewing AI as a powerful assistant. — VNS