Modernising the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security constitutes a strategic guideline of our Party and State to meet the urgent requirements of national construction and protection in the new situation. This is an objective need for all countries in the world, including Vietnam. However, hostile forces always claim that modernising the armed forces negatively impacts on the country’s economic potential. This argument is totally wrong and should be refuted.

In documents of many National Party Congresses, our Party has always advocated the building of revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security. At its 13^th National Congress, according to our Party, we will “build revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security, with a number of services, corps, and forces moving straight to modernity. By 2025, the Army and the Public Security will be made adept, compact, strong as a solid prerequisite for making the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security revolutionary, regular, seasoned, modern, and strong in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and personnel from 2030”. It is a difficult, complex task; therefore, our Party supposes that we will carry out this task for many years, even several decades, and we will modernise the Army and the Public Security when our socio-economic conditions are favourable. As for a developing country like Vietnam, it is a very normal issue. However, immediately after the 13^th National Party Congress mentioned the modernisation of the Army and the Public Security, there appeared an argument that the building of modern Army and Public Security would undermine the country’s economic potential.

It is understandable that such a viewpoint is derived from different states of mind. It is believed that the country has just experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and a large number of natural disasters; therefore, enormous investment in modernising the Army and the Public Security will negatively impact on economic and social fields. Such a concern is common and will be relieved if there are sufficient information and thorough researches. The problem here is hostile forces’ wrong argument against the modernisation of our Army and Public Security as the core forces in national protection. However, we have sufficient proofs against this argument.

First, the building of gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security is our Party’s sound, consistent guideline and our people’s earnest desire. Our Party always considers the building of powerful armed forces as a central part of defence-security tasks and the country’s national renewal, industrialisation, and modernisation. Besides, our people always express their burning desire for making the armed forces in general, the People’s Army in particular modern, powerful, and capable of playing a core role in defending the Fatherland and defeating all invaders. Building the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security is based on our regime’s synergy; we build the armed forces in a comprehensive but focalised manner to create the total combat power for Fatherland protection. In fact, we have obtained remarkable achievements in performing defence-security tasks under the Platform for national construction in the transitional period towards socialism (supplemented and developed in 2011) which stipulates the “building of revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security with absolute loyalty to the Fatherland, the Party, the State, and the people”. Great importance has been attached to building and gradually improving the synergy and combat power of our People’s Army and People’s Public Security to meet requirements set by defence-security and Fatherland protection tasks in the new situation. The armed forces have raised their combat morale and readiness. Services and corps of the Army and key forces of the Public Security have been consolidated. Weapons and equipment have been upgraded. A number of services and corps of the Army and several forces of the Public Security have developed in a regular, elite direction and moved straight to modernity. The People’s Army and the People’s Public Security have continued bringing into play their noble revolutionary virtues, maintaining unity and a close-knit bond with the people, expressing patriotism, love for socialism, and noble internationalism, and surmounting all difficulties to successfully fulfil all tasks. Given such results, the country’s economic potential has developed sustainably instead of being undermined.

Second, modernising the Army and the Public Security acts as an important task and a new requirement in the cause of national construction and protection. The Vietnam’s history of formation, existence, and development matches the glorious process of national construction and protection. Fatherland building and defence constitute the development law of our nation in the past, nowadays, and ever after and serve as the two strategic tasks of the Vietnamese revolution. Building a powerful Fatherland is the basis for protecting that Fatherland. In return, the fulfilment of Fatherland protection task will guarantee a peaceful country and enable the entire Party, Military, and people to devote themselves to national construction and development.  

National construction and protection are the two central, routine tasks which are always performed in specific conditions and circumstances. It is predicted that in the coming years, the situation on global and regional scales will have complex developments. Arms races, armed conflicts, new-style cold wars, hegemony, pragmatism, and populism are on the rise; the world order is disrupted, which is clearly shown in the conflict in Ukraine. The rapid development of the 4^th industrial revolution has created opportunities for and posed challenges to all nations. All those things necessitate the Army and the Public Security being modernised as an important and urgent task to protect the Fatherland.

Third, over the past 36 years of renewal, the country’s economy has been robustly developed to gradually build modern armed forces. Effectively carrying out the national renewal cause, our country has gained historic, tremendous achievements on the way to socialism building and Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland protection. Vietnam has escaped from socio-economic crisis and underdevelopment to become a middle-income developing nation; it is now stepping up industrialisation, modernisation, and international integration. The country’s socialist-oriented economy has been formed, fostered, and brought to a new height. In 2012, our country’s GDP was just 155.8 billion USD; however, in 2021, that figure doubled, at 362 billion USD. Vietnam’s share in ASEAN’s GDP has increased, from 6.5% in the last decade to 10.8% nowadays. Vietnam’s per capita income in the early years of national renewal was 250 USD per annum only, but it was increased to 3,743 USD in 2021, ranking sixth in the ASEAN Community. Vietnam’s rate of poor households was reduced from 58% in 1993 to 5.8% in 2016 under the Government’s poverty line and below 3% in 2020 under the multidimensional poverty line. It is worth noting that in 9 months of 2022, Vietnam’s economy achieved an impressive growth rate, with its major balances being guaranteed. The country’s GDP growth in 9 months of 2022 was 8.83%; for full 2022, it is expected to stand at 8%. The total export-import turnover in 9 months of 2022 was over 558 billion USD, increased by 15%; it will possibly reach about 800 billion USD for the whole year. Grounded on those figures, over the years, we have step by step modernised our armed forces. A number of services and corps of the Army and several special units of the Public Security have been modernised, while our economy has managed to meet the requirements set by this task and continued to develop in a sustainable way. More importantly, once being strongly developed, our Army and Public Security will give an incentive to the country’s sustainable development as confirmed by the Political Report of the 13^th National Party Congress: “our country has never had such fortune, potential, position, and international prestige as today”. This is the prerequisite for us to build revolutionary, regular, elite, modern People’s Army and People’s Public Security from 2030.

Fourth, modernising the Army and the Public Security is not only in terms of weapon and equipment, but also in an overall, synchronous, practical fashion. Generally speaking, the building of modern People’s Army and Public Security must be based on defence-security guidelines, goals, principles, and policies as well as the tradition of independence, self-reliance, and creativity. Modernising the Army and the Public Security represents the building of a compact, efficient, effectiveness apparatus; we always attach importance to developing a contingent of cadres and soldiers with great political zeal, fighting courage, and creativity in fulfilling their tasks and responsibilities. Modernisation is also aimed at force organisation, standard order building, technical and tactical capacity enhancement, mastery of science and technology, correct situational forecast, and development of defence industry and security industry. Therefore, it could be said that modernising the People’s Army and the Public Security will not impact on the country’s economic potential.

Things mentioned above prove that our Party’s policy on building the armed forces in general, the People’s Army and the People’s Public Security in particular towards modernity is absolutely proper and could be successfully implemented. The reason is that we have a pre-eminent political regiment supported and built by the people as well as a socialist-oriented market economy which has been robustly developed as necessary and sufficient conditions to make our armed forces powerful and capable of firmly protecting the Socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new situation.

VU VAN